


Chiron's School for the Wonderfully Cursed

by Skitty_chii



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Merry Christmas Bitches, Technically there's death, i tried okay, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-09 15:45:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 48,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8897860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skitty_chii/pseuds/Skitty_chii
Summary: Everything had been normal, that is, during the 'Before' part of his life. When Nico is suddenly thrown into a world he had only dreamed about, it is more than he is willing to deal with. When magic is thrown at his feet, Nico is forced to choice between his image and people that actually matter, but that's hard when the entire school think's you're a monster, and you start to think of yourself as one, too.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, so here's something!

"What William Shakespeare was trying to enforce on the audience in Romeo and Juliet when he stated that..." the teachers voice droned on. His Adams apple bobbed with every movement of his lips, his goatee hiding years of facial wrinkles. Thick rimmed glasses covered his eyes as his receding hair line framed his enlarged forehead.

It was growing increasingly hotter as the day ticked by, and sitting in class wasn't helping the feeling of over heating.

Nico had grown tired of hearing his mundane teacher continue on in a single tone about the works of William Shakespeare for the fifth time that week. But he continued to endure it, for it was the last class before lunch, and he couldn't wait to get something to eat.

Just when he thought he was going to fall asleep, the bell saved him from the tedious lecture. He stood up almost immediately, yawning as he packed his notebook and pencil away, slinging his bag over his shoulders before heading out the door and to his locker.

On his way out, he bumped into the janitor, a man with greasy black hair always thrown into a hat.

"I'm sorry," Nico apologized halfheartedly before zipping away, only looking back when he was about to turn the corner. The janitor still had his eyes glued on him in an almost creepy fashion. Trying to ignore it and shake the feeling away, Nico continued down the hall until he reached his locker, putting in his combo before shoving his backpack in.

"Dude," a man called out, causing Nico to jump. He closed his locker and looked at where the voice was coming from. He looked up to meet Mathew's eyes, a man from his English class. "Whoa, didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine, just wasn't expecting you there," Nico replied as he shut his locker, taking his wallet with him as he got up and followed Mathew down the hall.

"Still tired from Mr. Walsh's class?" he asked, leaning his head back while resting his hands on his neck. "I fell asleep during part of it and woke up to him blabbing about the same thing."

Nico smiled as he nodded, hands in his pocket. "Dude, I know. And his class is always way too hot, it's not fair that we have to suffer through it."

"At least it isn't Myers' class, her's is like Satan's asshole," he groaned, closing his eyes as he yawned.

"Jesus, don't get me started. I had chem with her last semester. Eric Rylee would always take off his shirt whenever he could."

"Fuck Eric Rylee!"

"Dude," Nico chuckled, "keep your voice low. He might eat you if he hears you shit talking him."

"Fuck, why is that so real?" Mathew asked, slightly concerned. Nico only shrugged in return.

They made their way to the cafeteria, swerving in and out of groups of people that where standing around absentmindedly. They stopped in line, waiting for their turn to pick something up to eat.

"I'm starving!" Mathew complained, whining as he fussed and stomped his feet in protest.

"Chill, you'll get us in trouble. People are already starting to stare," Nico muttered to him passively, rolling his eyes as Mathew tried to complain again.

He stared forward, watching the crowds of people move in and out of the room through the doors directly crossed from the other pair. He watched as the janitor weaved through the hoards of people, head low and baseball-style hat pulled down to cover his eyes. His greasy hair stuck out from the small tears in the fabric and underneath.

"Aw man, the weird janitor's here," Mathew pointed out, snapping Nico back from his thoughts. He hadn't noticed the fact that he had been staring at him intensely for the past minute until Mathew had spotted him.

"He seems..." Nico tried to place a word to it, but he couldn't. He felt out of place, even more so than most janitors do.

He had showed up only two weeks ago, and since the first day, something seemed off about him. He didn't act or look off, it just felt like it did. Nico didn't want to single him out, but how could he not? Something about him seemed... off.

"Trust me, I know. Look at him, he looks like he has lost his will to live. Really sad, isn't it?"

"Not what I would say, but..." But before he could finish, the line had moved up enough for the two of them to take their turn. Nico placed a pudding and a fruit cup on his tray and moved down to pay. Once he was done, he moved over to the side and waited for Mathew to finish paying for his own.

Nico watched the janitor as he swept up the same spot for the fifth time, trying to peel his eyes away. He was only half paying attention as he followed his friend to an empty seat only a few steps away from the line, over looking the rest of the cafeteria down the small inclination lead by two rows of stairs on either side of them.

Just as he set his tray slowly on the table, the janitor looked up and met his gaze, sending shivers down his spine. He stood there, almost frozen, unable to move as the nerve-wracking stair of the creep janitor tore into him, making his stomach feel empty and hallow.

"Dude, Nico!" Mathew called out to him as he sat down, noticing his friend stare off abstractedly behind him.

"Hmm?" Nico turned to face him, trying at act normal while the image of the janitor continued to tear through him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he answered as he took his seat, sticking his spoon into his pudding suspiciously fast and taking a bite, swallowing as if nothing had happened.

"Alright," he said, drawing out the word before tossing it aside. "Anyways, Samantha Higgins, from my bio class was asking me if you where free - dude! What is the matter with you?"

"What?" Nico looked back at him, finding his eyes and mind elsewhere.

"Are you alright? I'm talking about freakin' Samantha Higgins and all your doing is-" Mathew turned around to see what he was looking at, "-is looking at the damn creepy janitor! You sure your alright?"

"Dude," Nico whispered, dropping his head and voice low, looking over Mathew's shoulder to try and hide himself, "something's not right."

"No shit, you'd rather look at the freakin' janitor rather than listen to what I'm trying to say!"

"No, seriously, Mathew, shut up!" Nico hissed, swatting at him trying to silence him.

"Okay, man, seriously-"

"Shut the fuck up dude!" Nico aggressively whispered at him, sending him a murderous glare his way.

Just before Mathew was about to open his mouth again, he noticed the serious look Nico had. He took a deep breath and glanced behind him slowly. When he turned around, just as Nico had said, something was off.

He turned back to face him. "He hasn't moved," he said lowly, confused.

"I know, that's what I've been trying to say."

Nico kept his eyes locked on the mysterious new janitor, watching the way he eyed the entire student body, glare hard and cold as his aged-eyes stopped, looking just behind him. From a distance, it almost seemed as if he was looking not at him, but through him, but knowing he wasn't, Nico slowly turned his head around, feeling the stiff creaking in his neck.

Slowly, as he saw behind him, his heart raced. A girl with soft hazelnut skin stood in the direction of the old man's stare. Her curly hair, shades lighter than her skin, was held up in a soft satin pink ribbon. Even though her eyes were dark, they shone, bright with determination, yet hard with experience.

He turned back, looking over his friend briefly as he looked over the hardened old man once again.

"I think..." he tried to say, probably something about the girl he thought he was looking at, but the words hung on his tongue, dangling just out of reach before falling all together.

His eyes traced back to the girl again, but only for a small moment before turning to face his friend who was scarfing down his hamburger, still giving Nico a questioning glare.

Trying to turn his thoughts away, Nico scooped a large spoonful of pudding into his mouth. Even as hard as he tried to not look up, he couldn't help but look over Mathew's shoulder.

The janitor had stopped pretending to sweep, but he just stood there, leaning on his broom, glaring underneath the top of his hat. Nico took in a deep breath, stretching his chest out.

The pounding radiating from his chest rang in his ears, almost as if it was keeping track of time; every two beats signalling the passing of a second.

As the janitor brought his chin up, eyes never moving from the spot just behind him, Nico went numb. He didn't know why, but the moment his chin fell, rising slowly, the ringing came as a single buzz, drowning out the outside world.

As he turned his head around once more, he couldn't have been quicker, but for him, it still wasn't quick enough. The girl with the hazel skin nodded back, fixing her ribbon before looking upwards, reaching into her vintage coat.

Nico's eyes darted to were she was looking; upon seeing nothing, his eyes went back to the girl, his heart skipping a beat as a small, concealed blade made itself presence known.

"What the actual fuck?!" he aggressively whispered under his breath, eyes unable to look away as she held a firm grip on it.

"What, dude?" Mathew asked, getting annoyed with his friend before him.

"That!" Nico exclaimed, pointing to the girl that was now creeping up on his slowly, eyes still fixed on the roof. As she got closer, people almost seemed to act as if they didn't see her, like she wasn't even there. Without looking, she avoided walking into people, making her way slowly forward.

Mathew looked up to were he was pointing. At first he just sort of looked in the general direction of the girl, eyes not exactly fixed on a single spot, but after squinting, he just sat back, confused.

"What about her?" he asked, not seeming to see the sword.

"She has a fucking sword under her coat!"

Once again he looked, but shook his head with the same look of confusion and disbelief.

"Dude, you are going crazy," his friend started, but as he continued on, Nico started to get anxious. The more he talked, the more he wanted him to shut up and to let him think. "Like, first, you don't even seem interested in Samantha Higgins-"

The hazelnut girl made her way forward, brow brought down.

"-secondly, you think the creepy-ass janitor has it out for you-"

The janitor gripped the broom with aggression, muscles rippling through his hands, worn down with calluses. Scars littered his toughened forearms, exposed by his sleeves being rolled up; why hadn't he noticed that before?

"-You think that this girl is carrying a knife under her jacket-"

"Sword, she has a sword!" he tried to correct him, eyes still darting everywhere, but was cut off by Mathew.

"Whatever! Same thing! Look, dude, maybe you should calm down, maybe eat something besides sugar."

As his friend continued to talk, Nico couldn't help but feel threatened. He stood up, his chair making an ugly _screeching_ noise. All eyes fell on him, but that didn't matter, because as if every bit of noise had been screaming all at once, the noise that came next topped it.

An explosion-like sound radiated from the ceiling, bits exploding, being sent in all direction. Students ran, screaming, as they tried to get away from the thing that had just happened. The fire alarm sounded, sprinklers going off as a creature made entirely of what seemed like shadow crawled on the shattered ceiling, claws digging, sending pieces of debris falling.

The creature appeared to be defying gravity, tongue, rough and ridged, flicking in and out, hissing as it turned his head to look downwards in an abnormal way.

"What the actual fuck!" Nico yelled, head turned upwards as chaos broke out around him. People slammed into his shoulder as he stood frozen, entranced by the beast whose violaceous eyes burned the back of his mind, neck bending in a spine-breaking way.

The longer Nico stared, the more he forgot that he wasn't the only one there. He didn't notice or mind the people running into him trying to get out of the way, about the strange janitor or the girl with the sword; all he knew was that there was a creature that writhed haltingly hanging from the ceiling.

A tar-like substance oozed out of his mouth as he exhaled hot air, increasing the temperature room, yet still managing to send shivers down Nico's spine.

The more he looked directly into the eyes of the malicious creature, he didn't feel fear, but a sense of dread, like it didn't want to hurt him, but warn him, to show him what was to come.

Nico wanted to move, but time around him was frozen along with his legs.

" _Eum!"_ shouted the hazelnut girl, her hand extended and eyes wild. As people pushed past her - none ever touching her, though - in her free hand she wielded a bronze sword, symbols engraved on the hilt and blade.

" _Dimitte,"_ shouted the janitor whom had tossed the hat aside, showing a face hard with years. " _Umbra pecus!"_

With a mixture of water from the sprinkler system and the light that radiated from the combo's hand created a ray of light, glistening a sickening array of colours, transfixed by the creature that still threatened to do nothing, Nico was beginning to get nauseous.

"Come with me," the hazel girl said with much urgency, gripping Nico's upper arm with the force of a full grown man. Nico wanted to go with her, he _felt_ that he needed to go, but his feet had other plans. As she had to literally rip and drag him from the spot, his feet protesting to move but stumbling forward as to follow the rest of his body and to not fall forward.

As the older man, now discarded of his janitor getup, continued to shout words in a language that he didn't recognize, Nico couldn't help but to look up once last time at the creature that resided on the ceiling.

As he looked once last time at those piercing eyes, couldn't help but feel a freezing calm wash over him, as if someone had dunked a bucket of ice water over him, but instead of shivering and revolting at the touch, he found safety in what should've harm him. He knew he should have ran, but he didn't, and he didn't know why; he didn't _want_ to know why.

" _Vade!"_

"Stay close to me," she instructed him, her grip not loosening any less.

As Nico looked over his shoulder, the creature was no longer in sight, but the lights and screeching noises that radiating from a mix of fire alarm, students screaming, chanting from the older man, and the creatures unnerving silence that created a ring all to itself.

"What is going on?!" Nico screamed, and when the girl didn't turn back to answer him or show any sign of informing him, he stopped complying to what she wanted.

Nico dug his heel down, halting him and the girl's rushed path.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"We need to go," she exclaimed, her once calm, almost sweet demeanor gone, but replaced with one that was hard with years of pain. But Nico wasn't budging. "You don't understand what is going on, we need to go-" she tried to rush him but was cut off by the presence of the older gentleman.

"Hazel," the man spoke with a soft, yet firm authority.

"Chiron-" she tried to plead her case, but when he raised his hand, she shut her mouth.

"That's enough, my girl. We must go now, though. Will you please?"

With a quick nod and fast pace, she made her way back over to the door they had just exited.

"What the hell is going on?! What was that thing?! Why is it here?! And why the hell is no one acting like they saw that thing?!" Nico continued to yell questions, trying to wrap his mind around what had just occurred. Not even ten minutes ago his life was completely normal, no creature bursting out of the ceiling, dripping tar from his twisted smile, strange people chanting in a foreign language; he had been normal, and now he was more confused than he had ever been.

"Nico, please don't be alarmed," the older man - Chiron - had spoken with a softness to his words.

"How do you know my name?!" Nico interrupted, taking a step back, hoping that he would wake up from this dream - nightmare he had found himself in.

"Nico, I know many things, and all will be relieved in due time. But for now, as to your questions, I will tell you what you need to know to the best of my abilities."

Nico stood there, oblivious to the screaming around him. He raised his eyebrow in a cocky manor, as if asking him to continue on.

"That 'thing' is a creature that humans have yet to meet and remember the face of. The closest thing to the creature that have made big enough impact on human lives is the _Enenra_ from Japanese mythology. They also tend to be closely grouped with _Shade_. We generally call it _Quæ sedes in umbra_ "

As the man continued to talk, Nico grew more and more confused. Enenra? Shade? Nothing this man said made any sense.

"Barrier is up," Hazel, the girl, said solemnly as she took her place in front of Chiron.

"Thank you," he said, smiling gently in a way that Nico had never seen before.

The two of them started to head out, Hazel gesturing for Nico to follow.

"Why do I have to go with you?" he asked, heart still racing.

"Because it's not longer safe for you here," Hazel informed him, being gentler this time.

"Why?" he asked, trying to make sense of what they were saying.

"Because that... _thing_ has found you. We sensed you here, and it seems to be just in the nick of time too."

"You _sensed_ me?" Nico stopped in his tracks, the fire alarm still ringing throughout the building. It was starting to give him a headache.

"Yes, which is unusual. Usually they aren't so... _old._ " The way she emphasized her words seemed harsh, as if he was strange to her, even after all that.

"Won't people notice I'm gone?" he asked, still trying to figure out why he was being taken from his school. "Mathew, my teachers, my _Mother_?"

"I put up a 'barrier,' they wont notice your gone. It's as if you were never in their lives," Hazel told him bluntly, forcing him to continue towards the door heading outside.

"What?" Nico wanted to protest, to scream, but the more he thought about what had happened, the more he wanted to scream. "Everyone will forget me?"

"Yes," she replied, opening the door, the silence - compared to in the building - was refreshing.

"But, my Mother," Nico tried to wrap his head around the thought of his Mother never knowing he was born.

"Hazel," Chiron chirped in, voice sounding like a warning. "No, your Mother will not forget you." He gave Hazel a small glare which she just shrugged off. "She will believe that you are going to a boarding school."

"I'm so confused," Nico muttered, still unknowingly following them. He wanted to turn around, to act as if nothing had happened, that he wasn't following strange people just because they had told him to, but here he was, doing just that. "Why do I have to go with you?"

Hazel groaned, sighing deeply to which Chiron gave a reassuring sigh.

"Nico," he said, turning to face him. "You are not normal. That creature was drawn here because of you. We don't know why that specific creature was the one that came to you, that part... that is the part that confuses me, but because it did, we have to protect you." Chiron's face got hard in thought, the years showing on his face as he scowled in a way that could send shivers down your spine. "No-" he shook his head, looking kinder then, "-but you must come with us. Nico, I know you may not like it, but your life as you know it is over.

"We normally find people like you and Hazel when you're younger, but the fact that you're as old as you are (now) is unusual, something that might have to do with the fact that the Quæ sedes in umbra found you, but until we know, you must come with us. We will take you to a school where you will learn and understand, with other that are just like you."

As Chiron finished, Nico looked from one face to another, seeing how serious they were. Nothing made sense. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what was happening now that he had information and moment of clarity.

Almost as a form of panic, he started to laugh, shaking his head slowly at first, a small chuckle that slowly started to build in to a full on laughing fit. Tears that had started to pool in his eyes started to escape, his sides started to hurt, and his knees were becoming weak.

"You guys are crazy to think that _I_ -" Nico pointed to himself after he held his weight up by leaning on his knees, "-have some sort of voodoo witch craft magic powers!"

The glares he received from the two before him were steady, unchanged, if anything, a little exasperated. They waited until Nico managed to clam himself a bit, wiping away a single tear as he stretched his back back, attempting to shake everything off as a some sort of joke.

"Is Ashton Kutcher going to pop out and tell me I've been _Punk'd_?"

"'Punk'd'...?" Hazel mouthed, trying to make sense of the word.

"Nico, please," Chiron tried to silence him, to get him to understand, but Nico still was throwing everything off as a joke.

"I can't believe you had me going for this long! How'd you do those special effects? How many people were in on it?!"

"Nico," he spoke with more force, shocking Nico silent, "none of this is a joke." Nico stared at him, his shaking turning from laughter to worry, apprehension, his entire will to continue to stand riding on the adrenaline coursing through his veins. "What happened in there was no joke. Nico, you have powers that people only dream of. Did you not see your own hands while in there? It was small, but there was a spark." He turned to face Hazel, her arms crossed. "Hazel?"

She relaxed her arms and took a step forward. She put her hand out and closed her eyes, and not even a second later, from the pavement below, a thick, rough gem broke through, cracks spreading everywhere, and landed in her hand.

Nico tripped over his own feet as he tried to back up. He landed on his butt with a loud _thud!_ , his tailbone aching.

"Now," Chiron started, turned to head towards a parked car, old and rusted, yet well taken care of, "we must be going, ever minute we waste here, the more danger we are in."

Hazel dropped the stone as if it was it was going to burn a whole through her hand and extended her hand down to help Nico up. As Nico examined her hand, almost backing away from her touch, she let out a sigh and smiled, lightening her aura.

With cautious fingers, Nico took her hand slowly, getting back up to his feet, brushing his behind off of dust.

Hazel lead him to the car and opened the door for him, holding it open as he got in hesitantly, hands clammy and shaking. Once he managed to buckle his seat belt, Hazel slid in, eyes forward as Chiron started to drive away, silence becoming the loudest sound in the car.

For Nico, there was a before and after, and no matter how hard he wanted to stay in the "before", his life would forever be changed by what came after.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter! Now we really are getting somewhere

By the time Nico was jolted awake, he wasn't sure on where he was, or even the time. At first he thought he had fallen asleep, maybe past out and that was the result of those strange memories, but as his adjusted to the falling sun's light, he blinked away the sleep and looked around, eyes falling to the ebony girl beside him.

He stared at her side profile for a moment, letting the events wash over him like a broken replay button. He groaned, hitting his head on the window he had been leaning on what he amused was the entire trip.

Nico's neck hurt, his chest hurt, even his eyes hurt; he wasn't even sure on how he fell asleep. He had trouble falling asleep in general, but in a moving car? He chocked it up to the event that happened to be actually real.

"Where are we?" Nico groaned, rubbing his strained neck while stretching.

Hazel - the girl beside him - continued to stay still, only the swaying of the car moving her firm posture. It seemed as if she hadn't even moved the entire time, still being in the same position she had been in when Nico first remembered passing out.

Nico waited a few more seconds before straightening his back, the sounds of popping and snapping echoing throughout the car, followed by the constant soft flow of 80's jazz.

"Where-" Nico tried again, but this time Hazel replied, cutting him off mid sentence.

"We are almost there," she spoke brashly, eyes still fixed forward.

Nico bobbed his head, trying to get the kink out of his neck as he let the awkward silence settle around the car.

Nico turned to look out the window, watching as trees continued to pass by, different shapes, different types, but the longer he stared, the more they started to blend together.

"Just two more minutes," came from the front seat, presumably the man that had been driving the car.

Nico nodded, even thought he couldn't see the mans face, but mainly because he didn't want to open his mouth.

Everything had happened so fast, all at once, even he wasn't sure why he was going along with these strange people. Had it been shock? That's what he's thinking, but the fact that he was in a car with strange people that basically kidnapped him after telling him that monsters were real and trying to kill him, now that's where things started to get confusing.

They had told him that everything would have been figured out, especially including the fact that he basically skipped (dropped out of?) school and decided that going with them would have been a good idea.

But what about his mom? What would they tell her? They must have been planning this for some time because she wouldn't let anyone even close to him, but he was getting ahead of himself, or at least he thought so.

So as the trees started to appear more orderly, and not just randomly grown from the forest, Nico started to see through them and into the clearing just beyond their reach. Through the well-groomed tree, Nico could start to make out empty fields, rock structures, and mini ponds scattered throughout.

The further they got, the more he could see. He could point out trees planted in strange formations, shapes that twisted in unnatural directions, and giant gardens that wrapped around large areas. But as he watched, he noticed houses, larger than average, lined, each painted a different colour and with specific elements surrounding them.

But it wasn't until Chiron, the man driving, turned down a well-graveled road, did Nico finally notice the humongous castle-like school that stood, surrounded by water fountains and trees, looking almost like a mix of a university and Hogwarts.

"Holy shit," Nico muttered underneath his breath, eyes wide and unblinking.

"We are here," spoke the girl beside him, running her hands through her curly locks.

"Where the hell are we?" Nico asked, still in awe.

"We're at the school," she told him, this time kinder as she looked over herself one more. "Chiron's School for the Wonderfully Cursed."

Nico had no words, and as the car pulled up to the front of the drive way, Nico wasn't even sure he could walk. He was starstruck.

The engine was cut and the car went silent, Chiron still humming in the front seat as he started to get out.

Hazel soon followed, taking off her seat belt and opening the door, getting out.

Nico wasn't even sure how he managed to do so himself, but soon he found himself shutting the door with shaky hands as he took in the sight of the miraculous school.

"Hazel," spoke Chiron, "may you please show our new student around?"

Hazel nodded and agreed to do so.

"This way," she said, her voice less strict and more tired.

Nico nodded and followed.

"Now, the rules here are pretty simple," she started, waving to a group of students that passed by, "you will attend class and not fail to miss. The only time you are allowed is if you are sick or have a written note, which can be from a teacher, a student nurse, or from the Headmaster himself."

Nico nodded along, following her quickened pace as she made her way through the front lawn.

"Uniforms will be worn at all times while class is going on. If you are sick, you may stay in personal clothes, special events are allowed, but if you are to not wear them during class hours, you must have a signed note or have a teachers word.

"Your uniform will be provided as soon as we get you into your dorm. You will be required to wear it tomorrow, but today is fine if you choice not to. Your tie will determine your house which you will be placed in some time soon. If you want to wear a skirt instead of pants, you may consult and the Headmaster and he will supply your needs."

Hazel turned to face him and smiled. Nico stopped in his tracks and followed her finger with sight as she pointed to the large houses he had spotted earlier.

"Those are the houses. They are determined by your ability which should be shown later as previously stated." She pointed to a smaller house that was covered in dark blues, purples, and grays, giving off a spacey-type feel. "That's my house. It's quite smaller compared to the rest, but that's only because we don't have as many residence as the others."

She turned on her heel and continued to go forth.

Hazel pointed to a section of the field opposite from the houses where students were running around and fighting.

"That is where most of the defensive training takes place, both physical and elemental," she told him before heading towards the school. "You will be staying in the dorms that are watched over by the Hermes house. People joke and call them the 'Dorm Mothers', and they sure stride to live up to that name." Nico smiled as Hazel laughed lightly to her own joke.

"Most of the houses are based off of Greek and Roman gods and goddess. Just sort of kept everything neat and tidy when it came right down to it." Hazel started to point to different structures that were attached to the school.

"To your right you have the herbology lab, the dinning hall is the center of the school, but towards the back. The library is on the second floor to the right of the school. The infirmary is to your left, and trust me when I say you'll want to know where that is by heart." Nico shared an awkward laugh with Hazel as she continued forward, passing lanterns that were dim during the day.

"Honestly, you'll have this place figured out in no time, it's quite easy. Now, we must go and get your schedule and I'll point you in the way of your dorms and then I must be off." Nico nodded as Hazel sped up forward, swerving in and out of groups of people in uniforms of maroon and grey with purple accents.

By the time they had made it to the Headmasters room, Nico's legs were sore from all the walking.

"Chiron," Hazel announced as she knocked on the door, "we are here."

The man with the thick beard turned around, but this time he wore a well-tailored suit, his hair was combed back, and he didn't look like a grease janitor that had just mopped up vomit.

"Ah, there you two are. I was wondering when you would make it back here," Chiron said in a gentle voice, his face softened.

"Yes, well, I better be off, I have to get changed and head back to class. Good day, sir," Hazel spoke formally as she waved goodbye and walked out of the study.

"Now, my boy, please take a seat," Chiron told him, turning back around to place a book back on the shelf.

With shaky legs, Nico followed without a moment of hesitation.

"So, how do you like this place?" He asked, turning back around to face him, hands playing with the spine of a acient purple book written in a language that looks foreign to Nico.

"Well... it seems really nice, at least from what I could tell," Nico tried, fumbling over his words a bit.

Chiron chuckled gently, the wrinkles around his eyes showing his age.

"Relax, there is nothing to fear here," he said, slowly started to walk around the room, Nico trying to follow him by turning his head. "Now, is there any questions you have, because I know you must have a few, everyone that comes here always does."

"What is this place?" Nico asked, almost right after Chiron had finished his sentence.

The elder man laughed.

"This is a school formed centuries ago to protect and train those you posses extraordinary abilities, such as yourself and Hazel."

"Why am I here? I'm nothing special."

"Well, my dear boy, you are here because you are special."

"But how? Nothing strange has ever happened in my life until today, and it just so happened to be when you two were there."

"Nico," Chrion started low, his hand now resting on Nico's shoulder, "you are far more speical than you'll ever know, and give it time, only time will tell to what extent that really is."

Nico thought about this, realising that he had said something quite simular back at school.

"You said you don't know why that creautre attacked me, right? Why is that?"

Chiron took a second to think about the question, to truly find the right answer to it.

"If we are being honest, I have no idea why that creature was the one to target you." Chiron got back up and went to his book shelf that lined the walls of his study. He was silent as he ran his finger over the spine of a few books, sighing as he reached for a dust-covered one that resided on the high shelf. He managed to collect it and made his way back over to his chair of fine leather.

"Here," he said gently, passing a book that looked older than the country that resided in. "Take this book and look through it, it might be able to answer some more questions that I am not able to." He sighed, relaxing his shoulders. "Nico, both Hazel and I are unsure of the creature. She was not meant to be there, or even in our world to begin with. The _Quæ sedes in umbra_ is a creature of darkness, of death. Why she was here, attracted to you is a question I don't have an answer to, but why she didn't harm you, that's a mystery that I am quite fond of finding the answer to myself.

"You see, Nico, each creature that appears, appears to a child, usually younger than you, when their power has grown to a specific point were both we and the creatures are able to sense it. But you, you are quite old to be only discovered now. Again, you are surrounded in mystery, di Angelo, and I can't wait to find out why."

Nico sat silent as Chrion continued to speak, his mind still spinning.

"Anyways, you must be tired of all this information all at once. I'll give you a few days to adjust and if you have any questions, please feel free to come here and talk to me," Chrion spoke gently, smiling as he reached over to a small side table and grabbed a folded up uniform and made his way over.

"Here, your uniform." Nico took the pile of freshly made clothing and thanked Chiron for everything. "It is my pleasure, di Angelo."

Chrion also handed Nico a key on a leather chain and a piece of paper with his scheduled and room number.

"Take these and go rest up," Chiron told him. Nico smiled and thanked him once again before heading out of the room and to where Hazel had said the dorms were.

...

It took Nico a lot longer than he thought it would to get the dorms. But he managed all the same.

He found the room number that matched the number on the sheet and took a deep breath before putting the key into the lock and opening the door.

When he entered the room, everything had a grey hue to it. The curtains had been drawn back to prevent sun from entering, just trapping the heat and leaving the room feeling uncomfortable and unwelcoming.

Nico walked around and ran his hand over some on the furniture. His bed was to the left of the room, the headboard facing the door. He had a wardrobe at the foot of his bed along with a small chest separating the two. To the right was a writing desk that looked like it was made over seas and by hand.

But the feature that stood out to Nico the most was not the rug in the center of the room that looked like it was from India, but the window ledge that was protruding outwards and had cushions for sitting.

Nico set his uniform on the small end-table beside the bed and made his way over to the window. He grabbed the curtains from the middle and pulled them apart, a wave of dust hitting him in the face.

But what was behind those curtains was even more breathtaking. The view from his window was enough to leave him speechless, in awe. As he looked down at the fields and gardens, he truly felt like a Prince looking out onto his kingdom. But the longer he looked, with the sun falling, setting the sky ablaze, the reds and golds that fell on his face, he felt lonely, isolated from everyone else. He could feel a hard ball forming in his throat and his stomach twisting, feeling empty.

He let his grip fall from the curtains, slowly letting his hands fall to the side as he continued to look out on the setting sun.

His life had changed. There was before and after, and he had to say goodbye to the before. He might have been among hundreds of other students like himself, but in that moment, he truly felt alone.

...

The first few classes were a living nightmare. Apparently Chiron was right when he told him that they weren't used to new students being so old, he also must have forgotten to tell him that new students this late in the year were uncommon.

When he arrived at his first class, not only was he late by almost ten minutes, but his uniform was only half complete, his hair was a mess, and he didn't understand a single thing the entire time.

The teacher held him back after class to scold him on not paying attention and on being late, but even as he scolded him, Nico still had no idea what the teacher was saying. He had an accent so thick that he could only compare it to his mother's when she got angry, but he wished it was Italian, then he would have been able to understand.

"Do you understand?!" Nico was yelled at, the only bit he was able to understand.

If Nico was being honest, he wasn't even sure the teacher was speaking English, mainly because when few words he understood were loosely in Italian.

"I, uh..." Nico stuttered, trying to find the right way to tell him he understood nothing he had said.

He continued to scold him until the bell had rung for the next class to start. He muttered something that Nico again only briefly understood before he stormed back into his classroom and started to yell at the students who now sat in time for the next class, leaving Nico already late for his next class and having no idea even where to start.

"Great, first day and probably all my teachers already hate me," Nico grumbled to himself as he pulled out his wrinkled schedule.

"Alright, so... looks like I have to go..." Nico turned and pointed to his right, "that way." Nico looked up and saw only three other classes before he sighed and realized that that wasn't the right direction, but the other way. "Great."

Making it only fifteen minutes late to his next class, he thanked anyone he could when the female teacher he had spoke in perfect English with only a small Scottish accent.

"You must be Nico di Angelo, our new student," she spoke with a charm in her voice as she set a book on her desk.

Nico awkwardly waved as everyone turned around to face him, people muttering different things to one another about him.

"I see you're fifteen minutes late. I was starting to get worried."

"Yeah, sorry, I got lost," Nico muttered, trying to find an excuse onto why he was late.

"It's all good, just take a seat," she spoke softly, yet strong, picking up the book she had put down. "Now, di Angelo, can you tell me which British King Merlin assisted and was slain in the battle of Saxons, and that King's brother?"

Nico felt small as all eyes fell on him, bored looks and skeptical glances judged him as he told her that he had no idea.

"Miss Ellen?" she asked of another student who was scribbling in her note book instead of paying attention.

The student in question sighed and put her book down before saying, "Pendragon and Uterpendragon. Easy, can we move on to something actually interesting?"

"But Miss Ellen, without Uterpendragon, we would have no King Arthur," she explained, turning back to the board and continuing to cursively write down notes at an inhumanly quick speed which Nico struggled to write down as some of the students don't even look up at the board and their pens write for them and others just watch while fiddling with their nails.

The rest of the day went much the same: Nico would show up to class late and then his teachers would humiliate him on his lack of knowledge on these subjects. It wasn't until the end of the day that he looked down at his schedule and actually had an idea of where to go.

...

As Nico rushed down to the right fields, he was relieved to find a group of people waiting around as the teacher marched her way over.

"Finally I'm not late," he muttered to himself as he made it to the group of people just in time for the teacher to stand in front of the group of students to do role-call.

As the teacher went through the list of names, by the time she got to the end, she seemed surprised.

"And lastly, Nico di Angelo," she looked up, trying to find the new student before Nico slowly raised his hand. "Ah, there you are. Good, so today, we'll be pairing up and trying out defensive magic, using your partners magic against them. Now, does anyone volunteer to go first?"

The teacher looked around, scanning the groups of students trying not to make eye contact.

"How about you, Nico? Since you're new, why not show us what you can do?" As the teacher looked him dead in the eyes as her pixie cut was ruffled by the wind, the other students sighed and scuffled, talking quietly to themselves.

"I don't think that's-"

"I'll be his partner, Mrs. O," spoke a blond boy with shining blue eyes. His hair cut was uneven and his face seemed almost void of life, but sinister. His tie was a brilliant yellow with shining gold stripes.

"Ah, looks like Octavian volunteers to be Nico's partner for the first demonstration." The teacher clapped her hands as a smile grew on her lips. "This is great! Now, Nico, please come stand over here and Octavian, can you stand on the other side - thank you."

Octavian took his place in front of Nico but several feet back. He wiggled his fingers and leaned from one foot to the other as he got ready. A sinister smile found its way onto his lips, making Nico's hands shake. He was not ready for this, he didn't even know what his power was, and here he was, about to fight someone with it. He prayed to what ever god was out there to not let him die.

"Now," Mrs. O said, grabbing Nico by the shoulders and moving him out of he way, "I'll demonstrate first and the I want you to follow, got it?"

Nico nodded nervously, he didn't get it, he really didn't.

"Good. Now, Octavian, send a simple attack whenever you are ready, okay?"

"Yes," came from the blond boy with a fake smile.

Octavian bounced from one foot to the other then stilled, closing his eyes. With a deep breath, he let a wave of light shoot from his fingers. The orb came hurling at the teacher who coated her hands in a green mist. She stuck her hand out in front of her in such a relaxed manner that it seemed almost effortless.

As the orb came at her, she took a deep breath and followed it with her hand, and when it made connection, she continued to follow it and deflected it skywards, blasting it to dust.

"Just like that, but instead you will be deflecting it back at your partner," she explained as she put her hand on Nico's unsure shoulders and pulled him to where she had been standing. "Octavian, you will be the one to initiate the attack and Nico you will deflect it back at him where you two will go back and forth until it either dissolves or gets launched else where, got it?"

Octavian was the first to agree while Nico tried to get her attention and tell her that he had no idea what was going on, but in his failed attempts, he ended up facing the blond with a sinister smirk playing at his chapped lips.

"Ready?" he shouted before he threw the first attack, not even waiting for Nico's response.

Nico tried to copy the teachers stance and then the boy in front of him's, but their styles were so different that he looked like he was doing some sort of weird dance.

The first orb was shot his way which he managed to duck out of the way just in time without being hit.

"Di Angelo, you're supposed to deflect, not dodge!" their teacher shouted with her arms crossed.

"I'm trying," he muttered underneath his breath.

Again, another one was shot at him, and this time Nico put his hand out to deflect, but with a last minute decision seeming to be the smarter move, he shifted to the side to avoid getting hit.

"Di Angelo!" his teacher called again, getting annoyed with every failed attempt.

Nico could see the other students snickering off to the side, whispering words about him to the person beside them.

"What's wrong, new kid? Can't handle a simple deflection?" Octavian called out, putting his hands up as he mocked him.

"Shut up," Nico shot back, but quiet enough to not be heard by anyone besides himself.

The more he tried, the worse it got. Octavian had made it his goal to hit him with at least a single orb, and it seemed like he wasn't going to stop until he achieved that goal.

They started to come faster and more unpredictable. At this point, Nico wasn't even trying to deflect them, he was trying not to die, and seeing how things were going, he was sure this boy was intent on doing just so.

"Nico!" shouted his teacher as she tried to rush over, but Nico was deaf to those words, all he could focus on was the orbs flying towards him rapidly.

He took in a deep breath as his heart rate pounded in his ear. All he could hear was his rapid breathing and the pounding keeping a steady beat.

_One breath._

_Two breaths._

Nico could feel heat building in his hand as one hit him in the shoulder, sending a searing pain down his entire left side. As one more headed straight towards him, bigger and hotter than the others, he whipped his hand out and grabbed ignoring the pain building up in his hand as he slammed it down towards the ground, sending a blast of hot air back into his face.

Nico was knocked down, his entire body screaming in pain as he slowly blacked out.

...

When Nico finally came to, his entire body fought against him, his muscles screamed at him for moving, and they weren't the only ones doing so.

As Nico tried to get up, his vision still blurry, eyes refusing to adjust, he heard muttering come from somewhere near, yet altered enough that he couldn't quite place where.

Nico felt a hand on his shoulder, the one that didn't have a bandage wrapped around it, and he lost his balance and fell back down onto the cushioned bed.

"There is no way you are getting up," came a voice that was deep and relaxing, like verbal silk. Nico wanted to protest, but his throat started to hurt as he tried to push out words.

"But," he managed to croak out, sounding like a dying frog.

"No buts, you took a massive hit closeup. You need to rest." Again, the voice spoke, coming closer in range.

Nico fought with his eyes to open, but the continued to refuse.

"I'll get you water," spoke the soft voice.

Nico fell into himself as he waited what felt like an eternity yet barely a second for that glass of water that couldn't have come any sooner.

The owner of the voice propped Nico's head up and helped him drink in small gulps.

"Thank-" Nico coughed, "-thank you."

"No problem, it is my job."

The sound of the glass meeting wood was the moment Nico tried to open up his eyes, one at first, still having to keep them squinted. But after a few moments, he managed to open one up fully, still fighting for the other one to stay open as well.

When he managed to finally see through the haze that clouded his vision, he was met with an almost angelic sight. A boy with sun-kissed hair stood before him, a tiny ponytail keeping a small section of his hair back. He wore the simple dress shirt from their uniform and the same kind of tie as the boy that put him there, yellow and brilliant gold.

His sleeves were rolled up passed his elbows to keep them out of his way. His eyes held a sort of beauty that was rarely found in nature, the way the colours mixed reminded Nico of the ocean after a storm; wild, yet calming.

"How does that feel?" he asked, sitting down on a stool next to Nico's bed, his hands lazily crossed.

Nico tried to find his voice, but it was getting increasingly hard to find words that made sense, so he went with a simple reply.

"Good," Nico said, his voice cracking really badly. The blond laughed as he reached for the water once again to help him. "I got it," Nico said, refusing the blond's help.

"No, it's my job to serve you, so let me."

No matter how much he wanted to just lie there, he continued to feel the embarrassment of the day build up within him. Not only was he humiliated in all his classes, but here he was, on his first day, laying in some sort of hospital bed with the setting sun setting the room on fire with warm hues with some blond trying to do everything for him. He didn't care if it was his job or not, he was not going to have someone having to feed him water when he was capable of doing it himself.

"No," Nico swatted the blond's hand away, spilling some of the water on the bed. Nico just laid there in the silence that formed between the two of them.

As the atmosphere got heavier, Nico couldn't take it any longer. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, his muscles fighting him every inch of the way.

"Look," the blond said, standing up and holding his hands to prevent Nico from leaving, "you can do it yourself, just please lay down, you are not ready to leave yet."

"You are not the boss of me," Nico said as the pain in his shoulder started to make his thoughts fuzzy.

"I am your doctor, you have to list-please sit back down!"

Nico pushed past the blond even through all his protests. He just wanted to go and be alone.

"Later sunshine," Nico managed to mumble as he walked away, trying to act as if he wasn't in searing pain.

...

Nico stumbled through he door and into his room have aware of what was going on. He was glad that he had shut the curtains that morning because the light was too much for him at that moment.

When he made it to the foot of his bed, he fell down on it like he was dead weight. The moment his body hit, he felt a rush of pain ripping through him. He just wanted to sleep.

As Nico laid there, if anything, he wanted to cry. It was just his first day and he already hated it there. He had no friends, someone already tried to kill him, and everyone was laughing behind his back. He wanted to go back to his normal life, he wanted to wake up from this awful nightmare and be back in Mr. Walsh's class learning about whatever he felt was relevant.

He wanted to wake up and have the teacher yell at him for falling asleep during one of his boring classes and have his friends laugh at him as they made their way to lunch where they would take about nothing important and joke around.

He wanted all of this to be over, and as he slowly fell asleep, he started to think of all the other things he would have hated doing before that he would have killed for to do now instead of this. And that night he fell asleep with his shoulder buzzing in pain and a single tear falling from its hiding place.

There was things that happened before and after, and the "after" was starting to seem like a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada!  
> Not gonna lie, I was so tried editing this that I fell asleep half way through, but I woke up to finish it!  
> I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thing are really starting to pick up! Let me know what you think, it would make me really happy.  
> Kitty out!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day three of Christmas!

Through the next few days, Nico slowly got used to his schedule, managing to make it to class on time. Even though he still struggled, things were starting to get easier.

The pain the plagued his body was finally clearing up, his muscles no longer fighting with him with every movement. His shoulder was starting to get better, even to the point where it didn't hurt to move it. He tried to push everything behind him and move on, no matter how hard it actually was.

And by the time he got to his Magical History class, he was five minutes early and had his books all set out on his desk.

As he was going through his things, something stuck him as off. He noticed that he had packed the book that Chiron had given him the first day.

It was a strange book, the outside showing it to be well used. The lettering on the cover was foreign to him, but as he opened it up, the weak spine giving away to what seemed like centuries of use, he was surprised to find that the only hard thing about the book was the hand-written aspect of it.

It appeared to be hand-inked, with pictures to match the cursive writing. Creatures of all sorts roared to life as Nico flipped through the aged pages, yellowing with time.

He gently dragged his hand over one of the pages, smoothing out the paper that had become warped. Nico trialed the words with his fingers, following the steady lines that swerved gracefully.

"Alright class," announced his teacher as she made her way to the front of the class, her hair in a high ponytail as she set a grey book she was carrying on to her desk at the front, "please get your text books out and turn to page one-ninety-two."

Nico quickly shut the book closed, muscles tensing as he remembered that the book was fragile. He shoved it back into his bag and hauled out his text book instead, turning to the page his teacher had instructed him to do.

"Now, can anyone translate the first sentence at the top of the page and tell me what it says?"

The class went silent as the sound of pages being flipped echoed throughout the class.

_"Tenebris_ Deus...?" someone spoke out hastily.

"Yes," she spoke, looking around the room with a calming smile.

"'God has'...?"

"Looser, try reversing," the teacher said, turning her back on the class.

"Um," came from the same girl, running her finger over the word. "'Dark Gods'?"

"Correct, but a looser translation would be Gods Darkness. Any idea on what that means?"

The class went silent as the teacher turned back and scanned the eyes of the students.

"C'mon, it's quite simple if you put it into context. This book is ancient, don't trust too much on it's loose translation that google could have done better. Read and tell!"

A girl with a face full of freckles and hair bigger than the mess in her backpack slowly raised her hand, her nails chipped and mismatched coloured.

"Um, does this entail we will be learning about dark magic?"

"Yes, Dare! Exactly that!" The teacher turned from her students, her ponytail flowing with her sudden movements. She started writing down small words in both English and Latin, doodling small pictures beside them. "These are more commonly illustrated with the dark arts and black magic, but there's a fine line between black magic and black magic used for evil intent, and that's where we are going to study."

"Are you allowed to teach us this?" a boy with choppy brown hair asked, raising his hand slowly.

The teacher stopped her writing and turned around, staying silent.

"No," she answered after a few moments of silence. "What they have in the text book is all I'm allowed to. But what I will be teaching you is for your own protection."

She got out from behind her desk and started walking around with her arms crossed.

"Can anyone tell me what the simple I drew in the middle of the board is?"

The ginger girl put her hand up, looking awkwardly around at the rest of the students.

"Dare?"

"Isn't that a pentagram?"

"Exactly," she said, heading back over to her desk and leaning on the front, arms still crossed as she examined the students that sat eagerly in their desks, "and do you know why I am going behind the schools back and teaching you this?"

"To prepare us for something...?" a smaller built girl spoke up, eyes wide and amused, yet scared.

"Exactly. Look, they may teach you how to defend yourself, but how are you supposed to know the proper way if you don't know what you are up against. I know your magical beast teacher will teach you the basics, but I have seen too many fall victim to those creatures that are deemed too dangerous to teach about, especially when they are wielded by those full of hate.

"The original reason why they cut this course is because a long time ago, someone young like you used these lessons and turned them against us. There are people out there that do not approve of our way of training you; they claim that we are building an army, but in reality, we are preparing you for a war you will have to fight on your own."

The entire class sat in silence, no one dared to speak after the teacher, no one wanted to. What she had said really stuck a cored with everyone, and the after the silence was broken by the teacher herself, Nico found something pulling at him. Something about this was the answer to some question he didn't know, and it bothered him that he couldn't quite place it.

...

Nico's mind was still swirling about from his previous class on magic history. Everything his teacher said intrigued him and he wanted to learn more. But at that moment, he had to wait till after his final class.

"Now, magic isn't the only way to defend yourself," Mrs. O explained, pacing with her hands behind her back. "Physical means can be just as tactical as magic, especially when faced with an opponent that is equally matched with you."

She stopped and looked at the group of students, her eyes judging as she turned away.

"Now, please get together with a partner and get into position."

Nico had his hands in his pocket as he looked around at the groups of people that had already paired off with their friends. It wasn't until he felt a tap on his shoulder did he turn around and scowled.

"Hey, newbie, I'm sorry for what happened the other day, I didn't know you had _no_ previous training or I wouldn't have gone so hard on you," Octavian explained with his voice dripping with sarcasm. "How about we put that behind us and be partners?"

"Why would I ever want to be your partner again?" Nico asked on guard, eyebrow raised.

"Aw, I'm just trying to play nice."

"Then go play nice somewhere else," Nico shot back, turning away from.

Octavian's face dropped as he put a hand on Nico's shoulder, ready to turn him around to face him, but his plan was cut short when the teacher made her way over to them.

"What's going on over here, you two?" she asked, her hand on her hip, hair being ruffled in the wind and finger-less gloves seeming like a bad fashion statement.

"Oh nothing, Mrs. O. I was just coming over here to tell Nico that I am sorry for what happened and that I would like to put it behind us and be partners to show him that I mean him no harm," Octavian continued to sweet talk his way out.

At first she seemed suspicious, but then she smiled and placed a hand on Nico's and Octavian's shoulder, looking at the two of them with pride.

"I'm glad you two are over that incident, and if you wish, would you like to demonstrate the proper technique?"

"That would be wonderful, Mrs. O," Octavian continued the fake act with a smile so wide Nico was waiting for it to fall off of his face.

"Amazing, but just so you know, you two have to take it easy."

Nico wanted to protest, but by the time he tried, she was already dragging them off to the main area.

"We will be taking turns in a few, but these two have volunteer to show us how to properly fight before we move on to more advanced moves."

"Wait, what?" Nico said out loud, not knowing that this was going to be a real fight. He thought she meant that they would show a move or two. He was really behind in these classes and he was going to pay for it.

Octavian cracks his knuckled as he gets ready, shaking his hands out in preparation.

"Now, keep it simple, you two. Contact is allowed, but please keep the blood to a minimum, alright?"

She blew a whistle, and the moment the sound reached Nico's ears, Octavian was already half way to him with his fists up and ready.

Nico managed to block the first move, sending Octavian tumbling behind him as he got out of the way for the next blow that connected with his abdomen. Nico could feel his breath leaving me as he shot a punch out at random, making connection with his nose.

Octavian stepped back and spat to the side, eyes still burning holes in Nico's skull. Nico wasn't all the proud to admit to it, but he got in more than enough fights to not die five seconds in, but ten... he wasn't all that sure.

"Keep it clean, boys," their teacher shouted, her arms crossed as she watched the two boys threw a tidal wave of attacks at one another.

As one made contact with the other, that person had a punch ready to throw back right away. Nico's shoulder was starting to hurt, but at least he seemed to be winning. Octavian was fast with his fists, and maybe even with straight-on running, but Nico found that he was not all that great with coordination with his feet.

Nico kept pushing forward, moving in just a way that would force him to back up, but trip on his own feet. As Nico threw one last punch, he made connection with his chest, pushing Octavian back and on to his back as he fell over.

Nico felt pride as people started to take notice of his lead. He felt that for once, he was going to be on top, but then in a split moment, everything change. Octavian kicked his foot up and smacked Nico crossed the face, using that momentum to project himself back up to his feet.

With one swift kick, Octavian has him pinned to the ground, in pain and out of breath.

"That's enough boys, thank you," their teacher called out, walking between the two of them.

"Don't ever think you can beat me," Octavian spat underneath his breath at Nico, eyes aiming to kill.

As he walked away, Mrs. O extended a hand and helped Nico up. She pats him on the back and set the hand on his shoulder.

"You should go get those checked out," she whispered. Even thought no one else heard, they still knew, snickering at him. "You have permission to leave class early."

If Nico thought that maybe things were getting better, he suddenly felt the weight of the exactly opposite fall on him, weighing him down.

With a scowl, he wiped his plain grey tie on his nose after noticing their was blood dripping.

"Just great," he muttered, kicking a rock and _not_ planing on heading to the infirmary.

...

As Nico continued to dab is still bleeding nose, he cursed it, kicking the side of the school, sending even more pain up his foot.

"Fuck," he shouted, pinching his nose more after checking his bloodied tie to see if it had let up, which it didn't.

He sighed, wondering where he should go to ditch. He thought about going back to the dorms, but that would involve tracking blood through his room, and that was something he didn't want to do. So, once again, he was back at square one, wondering around aimlessly, trying to find something meaningful to do.

Or at least cure his boredom.

"This is really fucking hurts," Nico mumbled as he leaned his back on the structure behind him.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt as much if you were pinching it off properly," came a voice, deep and familiar, "or even if you had a cold cloth on the back of your neck."

Nico turned his head up to notice the blond that had treated him in the infirmary just a few days back.

"Get lost," Nico mumbled, resting his head back and closing his eyes.

"I wouldn't do that," he said, setting down a book that was in his hand. He untied his blazer from around his hips and set it beside the book before heading over to where Nico stood. "Here, let me help you."

"I'm fine, continue on with that you're doing," Nico said nasally, waving his blood-covered hand aimlessly.

"Look," the other boy started, tying his hair up in that adorable tiny ponytail that he had last time Nico saw him and grabbed the tie and pinched the bridge of his nose properly, "just let me help you and you can go on your way. Just, stop bleeding everywhere, it's not sanitary or safe."

Nico tried to push the blond away, but missed, swiping at empty air and losing his balance.

"Here," the blond said, holding Nico up an supporting him, "just sit down and let me do this."

"I don't need your help," Nico continued to fight, but the blond wasn't having any of it.

"Then don't think of it as helping," he tried, "think of it as... assistance. I'm just here to make sure you don't mess up."

"Ha ha, very funny," Nico replied flatly.

"Stop talking will you, it'll only make it worse." As the blond continued to pinch the bridge of Nico's nose, the sound of conversations passed in the distance, bouncing from wall to wall and back into the forest.

The blond took off the tie to look at it, scrunching his nose as he brought his finger slowly up to Nico's nose.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked defensively.

"I'm just trying to heal it faster so it stopped bleeding. I have no idea why it's not." Nico wanted to protest more, but he was blinded by the cold touch of the blond's soft hands as a light emulated from his finger tips, gently brushing the swollen (and possibly broken) section of his nose.

"Shit! Ow," Nico yelled, body revolting backing from the sudden pain that followed, but the blond had an iron grip and held him in place, continuing to press his fingers to his nose, the blood slowly coming to a stop.

"There," he said, beaming with pride, "all fixed... ish."

"That really fucking hurt," Nico hissed, putting his hands up to his nose to cover it from any more sudden "healing" attempts.

"I never said it was going to be painless," the blond explained, grinning slightly, "and anyways, it doesn't hurt anymore, right?"

Through all that had happened, it never occurred to Nico that his nose no longer hurt, or was now dry.

With gentle fingers, he carefully brushed his nose, surprised by the lack of pain.

"Shit, you're right," he muttered, hands still covered in drying blood.

"Now," the blond spoke, standing up, "you might want to go get cleaned up." He turned to pick his things up from off the ground and turned to face Nico, extending his hand. "Name's Will," he introduced himself, smiling.

Nico just stared at the hand as if it was about jump out at him. He picked himself up off the ground and dusted him pants off, even though that did nothing for the blood staining his uniform.

"Is that supposed to impress me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and gripping his blood-soaked tie.

"I just thought you would want to know the name of the guy who saved your life," Will joked, smirking.

"You did _not_ save my life," Nico shot back, sending a glare the blond's direction.

"Who knows, maybe I will, and then you'll thank me," Will replied, his smirk turning into a full smile.

"Whatever," Nico huffed, turning and walking away, leaving Will behind him.

...

That night, something was bugging him, and it wasn't his extreme attempts at getting the blood stains out of his uniform; he went to the Hermes house and asked them to help him with it, seeing as they were like the "Dorm Mothers," as Hazel had put it.

No, this was something that had been eating away at him for a while. So, he grabbed his bag and sneaked around the school after dark, trying to avoid getting caught as he made his way to the library. He thanked what ever god was willing to hear him out for the library still being open, well, at least unlocked.

He managed to get through and find a small blocked off place where no one would be able to see the small candle he had brought with him for light if they had entered, unless they went searching thoroughly.

Nico set his bag and candle on the small desk and hauled out the book Chiron had given him the first day. He hadn't had much time to really look at it, so he thought that if he had any questions, being in the library would be the easiest way to solve that.

As he opened the book, he was amazed once again by the way it was written. The print was something out of a fantasy movie, something he could only dream of reading, yet here he was, living just that.

He wasn't sure why he was so quick on accepting everything, but the longer he stayed here, the more he was willing to acknowledge that it wasn't a dream, at least not a nightmare.

Nico skimmed for a little while until he came crossed the section on the creature that had appeared the day this all began. There was a hand-drawn picture of that thing he had seen the day this all had started. Its beady eyes still haunting his memories, even through the artwork. The picture would have been hard to identify if he hadn't seen it up close already, as the creature was shrouded in inky black fog.

"' _Quæ sedes in umbra -_ if referred to, commonly known as _Shade._ This creature is one to not appear unless it is summoned, forced, or is needed. This creature is not commonly found, but can be located in the Underworld, and can be seen/heard at sights of grave misfortune and death on a massive scale.

"Powers: Unknown. Size: Unknown. Extremely dangerous, if encountered: Run.'"

Nico took a deep breath and stretched his back, letting the small bit on information wash over him. That was it, that was all that was written about it. He skimmed over the text again, coming up with the same information as before. He was at a dead end, and he was no where near closer to finding out an answer.

Why was he here? Why was he special? Why was he so late with his powers, and why was this creature the one to find him?

These questions stormed his mind, and he wanted answers.

He stood and picked up his candle, carefully making his way to a section and seeing if they had any information. He scanned the shelves and by the time his hands where full, he had several books on black magic, hoping that maybe these would help.

...

Nico had very little sleep getting back to the dorms at two in the morning after staying up all night reading, hoping to find some sort of answer, but after that night, he had more questions then.

He struggled to put his uniform on that morning, thanking the Hermes house for cleaning his uniform, making it free of blood. It wasn't until his last class of the day did he get pumped up, feeling something inside of his fuel, burning a match that wasn't there before. He didn't know what it was, but he liked it.

He stood there, listening to his Defense teacher go on and on about safety - mainly after what occurred yesterday - and talk about how it will now be a matter of who wants to participate in those sorts of activity.

Nico didn't hear what she was saying, all he could hear was his heart beat in his chest. He had to avoid looking around, mainly because of Octavian continuing to mock him just off to the side.

"Hey, I heard you went crying like a baby to the nurses office because of a bloody nose, can't handle pain?" he mocked, voice low so he wouldn't get in trouble.

"Today I want to focus on combat with magic," the teacher continued, moving her hands around to show what she meant.

"Did they pity you?"

"Combining what we have learnt into a show of ability."

"I bet they laughed at you," Octavian spat in his ear, sharpening his words.

"We will take volunteers for those who wish to try with a partner."

"I would have."

"Anybody want to go first?"

"I would have laughed at your crying face."

"Following the new rules, remember."

"And I would have spat in it."

"I will go first," Nico announced, surprising the teacher and Octavian who had to suddenly stop with his antics.

"Nico, you know you don't have to-"

"I said I want to go first," he stated again, stepping forward, fire burning behind his eyes.

"Alright," she said hesitantly. "Who's your partner?"

Without missing a beat, he said, "Octavian."

Everyone was silent, event the blond in question fell short of words.

"Look, Mrs. O, I don't think this would be smart, I already beat-"

"Are you saying that you think you'll lose to me?" Nico interrupted him, spinning on his heel in the damp grass. The wind blew the silence over the field, enhancing the tension that had been created.

"No," Octavian stuttered in defense as he slowly made his way to the side he was meant to stand.

As the two faced one another, both burning with hatred, the teacher cautiously explained the new rules, but neither one was listening.

"You're dead, di Angelo," mumbled Octavian.

"You're going to regret saying that," Nico shot back, eyes dead set.

When they were told that they could begin, neither side moved, the wind rustling. Nico had no idea why he was doing this, he had no magic, no ability, and even if something came out to help him, what if it was something stupid and that's why it took so long for it to even show itself in the beginning. He was going to get humiliated again.

Octavian was the first to move, he ran forward at an intense speed, carrying out the same tacit he had used in their last fight. His hands started to glow yellow, shining off of his tie and reflecting back at him. With a quick breath, Nico moved out of the way, letting Octavian's weight and strength be used against him, sending him reeling forward by his own force.

But the blond wasn't just going to stop there, he had a backup strategy. He pivoted on his heel, using the momentum to swing and propel himself forward. Octavian came charging, but Nico was ready. He was done being made fun of, he was done getting beat up in class, he was done of people laughing at him. This time he was going to show them what he could do.

As the blond came hurling at him, eyes full of hate and intent to hurt, even despite the rules, Nico watched and studied his movements, learning the best way to fight back. Just like the first fight, he could feel something build up inside him, something screaming to get out, and as he watched Octavian get closer, he was hoping what ever it was would show itself.

Octavian managed to land a hit on Nico's shoulder, the same pain as the first time coming back, searing red hot. But as the blond landed more attacks and Nico's strength was winding down from the pain, he could feel himself slowly blacking out, mainly because he could faintly hear the teacher trying to call things off, but Octavian was going to get all he could out of this.

But just before he could think, before he could notice the same heat in his hands, something snapped. Like a machine braking, everything started to fall apart all at once.

His hands started to shake, and he felt cold. Nico just stood there as something inside and around him changed. The temperature dropped and the wind picked up. The already cloudy afternoon started to get darker, drowning out the sun like a thick cloud of smog.

"What the..." Octavian stopped for a moment as he noticed the change. His guard was brought down as he and the rest of the class looked around in confusion.

Without a word, everything got cold. Nico's breath was like smoke, calmly and deeply exhaling in and out of his mouth. As Octavian tried to back up, to run, but he found that the ground beneath him was falling apart, rotting away. Grass that was once alive and well, was now colourless and dead, wilted like it had been touched by an early winter shock.

Fog formed around Nico's feet as blood started to drip from his shoulder and a small cut on his eyebrow. The ground shook, threatening to open up from the stress all around it. The air felt like all life had been sucked out of it, and when Nico opened his eyes and looked at the blond, there was no life found there either.

Octavian was paralyzed with fear, the ground holding him down with its dead, cruel hands. The violent ground tremors continued to get worse, but this time actually opening up the ground, the earth underneath Octavian's feet started to concave and give in, trying to swallowing him whole.

The screams of Octavian radiated over the fields, bouncing off of the school and for all to hear. Students flocked to the training field to watch in horror what was going on, watching as Octavian screamed and flailed for his life. But no matter how hard and loud he yelled, Nico couldn't hear him. Every sound that came at him was muffled by an obnoxious ringing tone, melting in the background of his thoughts.

Teachers and students alike shouted, trying to get through to him, but nothing worked. Mrs. O raised her hand and willed every last inch of her strength to gather. She shouted something incoherent to others as she prayed that her spell would work. And to her luck, it did.

The ground started to close after some protest and released the scared blond from its grasp. Octavian whimpered as he crawled to safety, watching in horror with the rest of the student body as Nico's power grew. The air continued to blow aggressively, the temperature dropping rapidly still.

Everyone was scared that it wouldn't stop, that it would only get worse, but it was only a matter of time before Nico's body started to reject itself, shutting off whatever had been unleashed, flowing freely. The boy fell to his knees, coughing as his mind started to blank.

Winds slowed and temperatures progressively went back to normal. The ground stayed its decaying colour, but the continuous rotting subsided, resulting in a giant ring around where Nico knelt on his knees.

If it hadn't been for the surge of magic from his teacher, there was no telling how far his body would have pushed, how far it would have gone before using up everything it had and decaying away itself.

By the time the darkness slowly retreated into the shadows and Nico gained full awareness, the damage had been done. Everyone stared at him like he was a monster, ready to snap and lash out at them.

Most of them had colour drained from their faces, looks of pure terror staining their once black expressions. Everyone was scared of him, and as Nico looked down at him own hands, shaking, so was he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm like literally in the bath right now posting this!  
> I really hope you all are enjoying this, I do it to make sure I am getting new content out there for you all, ideas that i have had in the back of my mind for quite some times. I think I have a version of this story for almost a year, just over? Anyways, I hope you are enjoying these as much as I am!  
> Please let me know your thoughts, i love hearing what you need to sat!  
> Kitty out!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My gosh we are half way done! I'm screaming!

There wasn't a second that Nico felt like he had privacy. Everywhere he went people looked at him differently.

His hands were stiff and rigid, refusing to move at his whim. They still were cold and discoloured just like the night before. He wanted to run, to hide, and while he looked out of the view from the window, he knew that he was going to have to say goodbye to the one thing he enjoyed about this entire event.

...

On his way from magic history, Nico decided that taking a detour would be a smart idea. With the amount of attention he was getting from the incident yesterday, he just wanted some time to breath, to pretend everything was normal, or at least as normal as it could get.

As he passed through the back of the school, hidden by the strange architecture, he leaned on the building for support. He looked out on the empty field from the way he had come, watching the trees sway in the wind. Nico looked in front of him, watching the sun cast its shadow on the greenhouse.

And as if everything had come undone, Nico felt himself slowly fall apart. His shoulders started to shake as his breath became hitched, hot tears pooled and streamed down his cheeks. He frantically wiped at his face, trying to get read of the tears that had coated his cheeks.

"Stop being so stupid," he whispered to himself, trying to regain his sanity.

Everything was falling apart. He had no friends, everyone either hated him or was scared of him, no one was telling him what happened or even where to go from there, everything was a mess; he was a mess.

Nico wasn't sure on how long he had been there, but it wasn't long until he heard footsteps and tried to cover himself up, either from the person or from looking like he had been crying, either would have worked.

"Are you okay?" came a deep, reassuring voice, coming closer as he spoke.

Nico looked up and wanted to die. Of course the person that would find him was that idiot wannabe doctor from before - Will, his name was.

"What do you want?" Nico asked, not caring at the point that his voice had cracked somewhere in there.

"Nothing - I was just walking by to get to my shift at the infirmary, are you sure you're okay?"

Nico tried to push passed the blond who still was in his full uniform and hair down. He wanted to, he really did, but after one quick glace at the drying tears on his cheeks, Will grabbed Nico's arm, pulling him back gently.

"Whoa, something is wrong," Will spoke with concern lacing his voice.

"Nothing's wrong," Nico insisted again, sniffling, "I just got something in my eye, now leave me alone."

"Look, if something's bothering you, you can tell me-"

"Stop trying to be my friend! I don't even know you, so back off! You're not even a real doctor so stop trying to act like one!" Nico stood frozen, his hands shaking. He quickly shoved his hands in his pocket after seeing the hurt look on the blond's face. He felt awful for saying it, but he wanted someone else to feel bad for once, not just him.

With a quick step he left the blond behind him, much like he ha before, storming off to be somewhere else.

...

When lunch came around, it only got worse. He not only felt awful for yelling at the blond, but now everyone was whispering about him, pointing and turning away before they thought he could hurt them. It stung, but sadly, he was starting to get used to it.

After not even ten minutes, he had gotten sick of sitting by himself, and got up and left. He had to go somewhere, and he had an idea.

Nico quickly made his way to the winding stairs, taking a deep breath as he rushed up them and to the third floor.

He managed to get to Chiron's office in seconds flat, knocking gently.

While he waited for a reply, he set his backpack down and slowly took out the book he had lent him. Nico ran his hand over the cover one last time, feeling the cracks from age with a soft touch.

"Come in," came the deep voice of the Headmaster.

Nico slowly pushed the door open with his free hand, making his way inside with shaky hands.

"Ah, Nico, I was wondering when I was going to see you. I was going to call you in soon, but looks like you beat me to it," he joked, closing a book of crimson that he had open on his desk, removing small spectacles and placing them on the cover.

"Yeah, well, I had some free time and thought I would return the book," Nico told him, showing the item with a flick of his wrist, gingerly making his way over, keeping his head down.

"I don't think that's the real reason why you are here," Chiron said, voice low and serious. Nico looked up at him in awe, wondering how he would know that.

"What do you mean?" he asked, carefully setting the book on his desk and taking a few steps back.

"I think you know, my boy." Chiron took the book, leaving the room silent as he placed it back on his shelf before turning and facing him once more. "You are looking a little under-dressed," he said, watching Nico as he looked down, trying to figure out what he meant.

"Sir, what do you mean 'under-dressed'?" Nico asked frantically.

"Your tie, it needs to be changed." As Chiron spoke these words, memorized flooded back to him and he could feel the lump in the back of his throat slowly start to rise. Self-consciously, Nico placed his hand to cover his tie, his hands a paler shade of the garment.

Chiron took his time as he walked over to a small shelf, each drawer coloured differently. With a heavy sigh, Chrion bent down to the lowest level, one covered in dust and appearing like it hadn't been opened in years, if not decades.

After removing a piece of fabric, he sauntered back over to where Nico was standing, and handed him the wrapped object.

Nico took it gingerly from the older Headmaster and looked at it, trying to figure out what it was. As Chiron went back around his desk, he kept his sight on the boy, waiting for him to open it.

"Open it," he said, gesturing with his chin as he sat down in his leather chair.

With shaky hands, he slowly unwrapped the object, only to reveal a tie of grey and black. Nico picked it up and set the wrapping aside. It seemed old, yet pristine; vintage.

"What is this?" Nico asked, finally looking the Headmaster in the eye.

"It's your house tie. Where it with pride."

Nico looked back down at it after a beat, his heart racing as he fingered the cloth in his hands. It was smooth, like silk, and it held a sort of mystical beauty. Everything about it was incredible, but what he didn't know about it was what scared him. Why had he not seen anyone else with this exact colour combination?

...

As he made his way to Defense Class, he dawned his new tie, feeling almost out of place with it. As he watched everyone around him, examining their necks, not a single person sported a grey and black striped tie.

But he didn't care, he felt like he had gotten somewhere, like for the first time, he had a place, even if he wasn't sure where it was.

Nico had left Chiron's office without knowledge on which house he actually belonged to. He had received his tie, but to a house he didn't know. No matter how hard be tried, he couldn't place it.

He passed the houses, he looked at their colours, their members and their ties, but none matched, and it was that nagging feeling that followed him to the field.

Even though everyone was watch Nico, he didn't care that much. At least then it wasn't them laughing at him for knowing nothing, it was because they knew he could do something, and that scared them.

"Better to be feared than to be laughed at," he muttered as he stood off to the side, arms crossed as he waited for Mrs. O show up.

When she finally showed up, her hair was rustled from the wind and she appeared to have received little sleep the night before.

"Alright, everyone," she started, sighing as she put her hand to her hip, blinking slowly while eyeing everyone, "can you partner up with someone close to your height."

The whole class quickly bustled about, making eye contact with one another to try and get with a friend. As everyone ran around, Nico stood off, watching as people in pairs would look over their shoulder at him. He sighed, knowing that this was to be expected.

After everyone was paired off, the teacher stood in front of everyone, shouting, "Raise your hand if you don't have a partner."

As she looked around, the only one to raised their hand was Nico, gingerly putting it down after everyone had turned to face him.

With a small huff, the teacher told the class warm up quietly as she walked over to Nico.

"Look," she started, sounding tired, "it's not your fault."

"What? That everyone is scared of me? No one wants to be partner with the kid that almost killed someone two weeks into his first year."

"It's not that," she tried to explain, losing her train of thought as she sighed heavily. "Look, why don't you take this time to get caught up on homework? Relax a little, I'll even write off on it if you wanted to leave class early to do so."

Nico looked her up and down, sighing when he realised that she had only said that to get him gone and out of the way. She didn't want to teacher him just as much as anyone wanted to be his partner or friend.

"Alright," he said blankly, huffing as she smiled, patting his shoulder, and turning back to face the rest of the class, clapping her hands to get their attention.

Nico waited around for a few moments before turning away with his arms crossed, the sound of laughter echoing behind him.

As he aimlessly wondered around, his thoughts going everywhere, yet no where, he glanced down at his hands, still disturbed by their sickening colour, almost dead-like by their appearance. He flexed them, watching as his bones moved under his skin, making them look skeletal.

As Nico walked, he wasn't looking where he was going, eyes focused on his hands. So when he bumped into something, he wasn't all that shocked. What really shocked him was the sudden push to the ground that never made contact.

As he started to fall back, he was preparing himself to hit the ground, for another bruise. But instead he was caught, a strong hand managed to grab him by the side and pull him closer. The scent of honey and lemons over took his senses as he froze in shock.

When he managed to realise what had happened, the figure that caught him chuckled lowly.

"Look's like you've fallen for me."

Nico looked up at the face that was cascaded with a blond halo, smile almost brighter than the sun reflecting his endless blue eyes.

"Let go of me," Nico mumbled, pushing his body away from Will who only laughed at the flustered boy in front of him.

"Hey," Will started, putting his hands up in defense, "I wasn't the one who knocked into me and fell." Nico wanted to protest, but he only rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he muttered, leaving the blond a smiling mess. As he tried to walk away, mumbling under his breath whatever half-baked insult he could come up with, Will grabbed his arm tightly, something of a frown replaced his usually cheery demeanor.

"What?" Nico asked, trying to sound annoyed, but without another word, Will had grabbed Nico's hands and held it in his own, studying the miscoloured pigment of them.

"What happened?" he asked seriously.

Nico's brows furred together as he tried to figure out what he meant, only realizing he was talking about his hands after it was too late.

"Nothing," Nico managed to say while trying to pull his hands away, but Will's grip was strong.

Will gently stroked Nico's hand with his own, completely forgetting what he was doing in the first place.

"Come with me," he said, pulling Nico along even through the younger boy's protests.

...

When they arrive at the infirmary, Will finally let go of Nico's hand.

"What the hell?!" Nico yelled, demanding to know why he was brought here.

As if everything in Will had changed, Will took his jacket off and tied his hair up, going into doctor mode.

"Shut up," he flatly told Nico, turning around while rolling up his sleeves. "Now, how long has your hands looked like this?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "I don't know, maybe yesterday, but it's no big deal. Can I leave now?"

Will frowned, his face becoming hard as he took a seat on a stool that stood off to the side.

"Nico," Will flustered, taking the boy's hand in his own again, holding it gently like it was going to break, "why didn't you come in earlier, or at all?"

Nico rolled his eyes, trying to calm the faint heat that came to his cheeks as the blond continues to finger his hand with the soft pads of his own.

"I - I," Nico tried to form some sort of excuse, but his mind came up wordless as he looked upon Will's saddened face.

Will looked up at the younger boy in front of him, locking eyes when Nico looked up from the fixed point just behind Will. No one moved out of the two of them while the outside world seemed almost nonexistent to them. As Nico sat there, he became extremely aware of Will's hands on his, the heat that came from them, the heat coming from his ears. The pounding of his heart.

Nico wanted to look away, he wanted to run, he wanted to cry, so many things past over him in those several seconds that made him want to scream. But he couldn't. Will's eyes were like a vortex, sucking him in and refusing to let him out.

Nico was the first to brake the eye connection, pulling his hands back to his lap at the same time. Will straightened his back as he turned to face the small side table beside the bed.

"So," Will said, trying to break tension as he inhaled, "what's your favrouite colour?"

Nico raised a brow.

"What's my favourite colour?" Nico repeated, looking at Will with a blank expression.

"Yeah," Will clarified, sounding cheery.

"Why does that matter?"

"Just making small talk," Will said with a smile as he turned back to face the dark haired boy. He gingerly reached for Nico's hand to which Nico pulled back, looking the blond up and down.

"Um..." Nico mumbled skeptically, "purple, I guess."

"Ooo, I do like purple, but if we are being honest, I prefer yellow," Will hummed as he trailed Nico's bone structure.

"Obviously," Nico muttered under his breath, but Will ignored it, or maybe he didn't even hear.

"Now, it might hurt a little, but I have no idea what actually happened to your hands."

"What do you mean you have no idea what happen - fuck!" Nico screamed, pulling his hand from Will's own, shaking it out. "That fucking stung!"

"Watch your language," Will said, looking unamused at Nico's choice in words.

"But that really f - freaking hurt," Nico shot back, catching his tongue before he cursed again.

"Well," Will started, smirking as he grabbed his other hand, "I did say it would hurt."

"You little," Nico started, stopping before he said anymore.

Will snickered as he tried to fix Nico's other hand. Nico clenched his jaw as he prepared for the next blow, this one coming less painful than the one before it, but still stinging.

"Ahh!" Nico yelled, pulling his hand back. He tried to send Will a murderous look, but the blond just laughed back at him. "Don't laugh at me," he said, pouting.

"I'm not," Will lied, forcing his mouth into a smile to stop the chuckle from rising again, looking anywhere but at Nico.

"Liar," Nico mouthed, but Will just continued to laugh, this time not at his pain but at his attempt to seem stronger.

"Anyways," Will said, looking over Nico's hands, making sure they looked better, "looks like whatever I did worked."

"I can't believed you risked my hands," Nico muttered, still looking at Will through narrow eyes.

"Hey," Will started, "I wouldn't have _completely_ destroyed your hands, only slightly making them worse."

"Bastard."

"Language," Will chuckled.

"Fuck you," Nico mouthed back, watching as Will almost fell out of his chair.

...

"Hazel!" Nico called out to the ebony skinned girl as he spotted her talking with a small group of people who waved her bye as she turned around to speak to Nico.

"Yeah?" she asked, smiling and soft.

"Do you think you can do me a favour?"

"Depends on what it is," she said, resting a hand on her hip.

"Well," Nico started, trying to form the proper words in the right order, "you think you could show me which house I belong to?"

As Nico asked, Hazel looked nervous, eyes looking around frantically as she thought of a response.

"Nico," she started, trying to figure out how to say it, "I don't know, I don't think you want to."

"Why?" he asked, dead-set on the idea of finding out where he truly belonged.

"It's just," she started, sighing, hiding behind her hand, "don't expect too much, okay?"

"Thank you!" Nico exclaimed, jumping in place, feeling a sense of pride he hadn't felt in weeks.

"Just," Hazel started, still having her hand in front of her face, "don't fall behind." She started to head in the direction of the houses, tall and significant on their own.

They followed a path made of stone as the got closer to the symmetrical organization of the building, Hazel keeping her sight forward as she bypassed all of the others.

Nico felt something small within him shake with anticipation as he watched the others as they passed him as Hazel continued on, heading towards a path no longer made of stone. With a beaten path only created by the constant use of people walking along meeting the end of the hand-paved road, Nico was starting to think of all the possible outcomes.

But as Hazel continued forward to what seemed to be the forest, Nico wondered where this was going. She pulled a branch out of the way and stepped into the small opening leading into the seemingly dense forest.

The path continued, this time seeming like it hadn't seen much activity in many years with over growth and rotten twigs scattered where should have been clear for those who walked it.

Nico could feel his heart pick up as he continued to follow Hazel who continued to walk solemnly, quiet as she slowed down to a complete stop, causing Nico to almost run into her.

"Here," she said, stepping over one last fallen log as the sight of a rundown two story house sat, abandoned only a minute into the woods.

"Wow," Nico said, unable to see through the state and condition the place was in. He continued to walk forward, his legs taking him as if something from inside was pulling him towards it.

"Nico!" Hazel shouted as the boy started to dash towards the broken down house. She sighed as she started to chase after him, following after him inside.

"Look at this place," he exclaimed, a smile on his face for the first time in a long time. He continued to run from room to room.

"You know you don't have to live here," Hazel shouted, standing with her arms crossed as she watched him race from one side to another, testing out the stairs and quickly running up them once he decided they were sturdy. "You can stay in the dorms if you want."

"Why would I want that?" he replied, sticking his head over the railing to face Hazel who had made her way to the bottom of the staircase.

Hazel couldn't help but smile at the boy how looked genuinely happy for the first time since coming to this school.

"Have you seen this place?" she asked, laughing softly with her arms crossed.

Loud footsteps echoed from the second floor until Nico stood at the top of the stairs, hair rustled in all directions.

"Have _you_ seen this place?"

Hazel continued laugh. "That's the exact reason why I asked you that."

"Look," he said, jumping down the stairs, only really stepping on a total of maybe four steps all together, "this place only needs a small fix up and it'll be perfect."

Hazel stepped back when Nico reached out and grabbed her hand, running all over the place, dragging her around.

"See," he started, showing her the first floor, "we just need to fix up a few things and clean a lot, that's all!"

Hazel wanted to tell him so much, so much about how that would be an awful idea, but by the way the light twinkled in his eyes, the fire that burned behind them, even though the entire place looked like it would break any moment, she decided that she would help him.

"Fine," she said firmly, breaking her stern composure and smiling as she looked Nico in the eyes, "I'll help you clean, but don't come to me for anything else."

"Thank you!" Nico exclaimed, continuing to jump around, hand-in-hand with Hazel.

...

Over the span of the next two days, Hazel and Nico spend their free time fixing up the house hidden by the mysterious aura of the forest. When then weren't in the house, they were heading back to the main building to get proper supplies to clean with.

On one of their trips back, they were covered head to two in dirt and cleaning supplies, one of Hazel's friends had seen them previously and came up to them, asking what they were doing.

"We are fixing up the house in the woods," she told him, a boy with hair almost as crazy as the grease stains on his overalls.

"Shit, really? That old piece of work? Why?" he asked, intrigued.

"Nico here is moving in," she explained as she threw her thumb over her shoulder to point to him.

"Really? I didn't know anyone actually belonged to that house anymore, mainly because no one has lived in there longer than any one here."

This got Nico thinking, wondering why no one did live there, why no one wore the same tie as him. This was a thought that Nico had for some time, but as he rolled it over in his mind, Hazel broke his concentration by saying, hastily, "Yeah, well, there is one now, so we are trying to get it ready for living again."

"Dude, I can so help!" the boy exclaimed, clenching his fist as his eyes lit with a burning passion, and just straight up catching on fire ever so slightly.

"Really?" Hazel asked, smiling widely as she told him that it would be wonderful for his expertise on that topic.

"Anytime, gem."

"Leo," she warned him with her tone.

He put his hands up in defense. "I kid!"

The three of them managed to get over half the house fixed in the first day. While Leo fixed the major problems, Nico and Hazel cleaned the rest that where still intact. As the sun fell, the house was shaded by the outlines of branches and trees, giving life to the slow project that finally made Nico feel like he had a purpose.

"I think we'll have this place ready to be able to be moved into by tomorrow," Leo explained, wiping a line of sweat off of his brow.

"Look at this place," Hazel said, actually impressed by the work they had managed to accomplish and by the stunning beauty that it took.

"Isn't that what I've been saying this entire time?" Nico asked, wiping his forehead and leaving a trail of dirt where the sweat was.

Hazel smiled. "Yeah, I guess it was."

As they finished up for the day, picking up their supplies and carrying it out and back to either the main building or their respective houses, Nico hangs back with Hazel to ask her a few questions.

"Hey, Hazel," Nico started, trying to place his words properly, "why doesn't anyone live here anymore? And why don't people really know about this place, but, like, you?"

Hazel stopped, thinking her words over carefully.

"Well," she started, slowly continuing her walk out of the house with Nico following suit, "back when I first started, they had almost put me here." As she continued to talk, she purposely tried to ignore the first part of the question.

"They did?"

"Yeah," she said, thinking back on the time when people looked at her differently, almost like they had done to Nico, but not as aggressively. "My abilities were much like the ones found in this house, but Chiron had stepped in, explaining why I was placed where I was; with the Hecate house."

"Oh," Nico thought out loud. The continued in silence for a little while longer. "No one had told me the name of my house, anyways. What is it?"

This time Hazel fully stopped in her path, eyes looking at the ground with intense focus.

"Hazel..." Nico spoke up after a moment passed between them as they stood silent.

"Look Nico, this isn't my place, just learn to live with what you know, and if you have any questions, ask Chiron, not me." As she spoke, she refused to look at Nico. Even after she finished speaking, she continued ahead, leaving Nico just outside of the forest, stopped dead in his tracks, wondering.

Why had Hazel been so secretive about this? She was the one to agree to help him in the first place...

...

The next day came by faster than Nico expected. He must have been so tired that he fell asleep the moment he got back to his dorm. He hadn't much to pack, so when the sun came, he felt a sudden need to hurry, to finally have a place to belong.

But the entire time he stood in that house with the two others finishing up the last details on the damaged property, the events of yesterday played over and over in his mind, seeming to always come around to the same questions.

He would have thought it weird if Hazel had continued to act the way she did the day before, but she hadn't. Hazel had arrived early - even before Nico - and started cleaning, rushing around to help out. She had smiled and talked the entire time, laughing at Leo's failed attempts at jokes, even looking over at Nico with an expression that seemed pained when he tried.

Every time Nico would look over at her, her hair held back in a bandanna, he continued to think of reasons why she had acted that way previously.

But the time lunch came around, they had finished enough to allow Nico to bring his very few things over and in. Chiron had actually come up to the group of them on one of their rounds back to the main building and told Nico that he could exchange the old furniture out for the ones in his room.

He had been excited, he wouldn't have to sleep on a mattress so old it looked like it housed generations upon generations of forest creatures and bugs.

So as Hazel and Leo continued the last little bit of fix ups, Nico headed back to his dorm to quickly pack up his things into boxes. Less than an hour had passed when Nico was fully packed up and ready to get out of there. Before he left, he looked back at the room, everything covered in boxes and bare.

He walked over to the window, placing his hand on the glace gently, letting the rush of the cold glass relax him and his hand, which would still occasionally shake. Nico looked out on the fields, watching as students walked around with their friends, spending the rest of the days free time doing whatever they pleased. It was nice, yet melancholy. He had enjoyed it here, in this small room, even though he would never say it out loud.

He took his hand off the glass, missing the cold touch the moment his hand fell to his side. Nico stood there, just watching, before he reached up and grabbed the ends of the curtain, taking in a deep breath and one last glance before pulling them shut.

...

Box after box, Nico continued to stack them, making only a few trips to deliver all of his things.

As he made the tedious trips, his back was starting to scream at him, angry at the constant stress being put on it. He was about half way there when he could feel his hand slipping, knowing full well that he was going to drop the boxes soon. But just as he thought he was going to lose everything in his hand, another pair came out of nowhere and steadied him.

"Shit," Nico said, after thinking he was going to drop the boxes.

"Whoa," came the voice of the person who had prevented him from dropping them, deep and smooth.

Nico peered around the boxes, locking eyes with the playful eyes of a certain blond, a small smile on his face as he evenly carried the weight of the boxes for Nico.

"Will," was all Nico could mutter as he stared at the blond who finally looked back, smirking softly.

"Don't want to drop these," he replied while Nico got a better grip on the boxes in his hands.

"Thanks," Nico muttered back, trying to hide his embarrassed face from Will behind the load.

"You need any help?" the blond asked as he slowly let go of the boxes, hoping Nico had gotten a better grip.

Nico stared at him, trying to say something.

"No," he told him, looking away and shifting as he started to walk away.

"You sure?" Will asked again, raising a brow as he watched Nico struggle with the boxes.

"Yes!" Nico yelled back at him as he continued to head towards the forest.

Will watched with his arms crossed as Nico stumbled forwards on his way, trying to not fall off the path. He smiled to himself when Nico turned his head to look over his shoulder, quickly turning forward when he noticed Will was watching him, red rushing to his ears.

As Will watched him, he thought it was weird that he was moving into that strange house in the woods. Will knew of it, be he never had seen it. For which it was for, he had no idea, but knowing that Nico was moving, he knew it had to belong to his house.

...

The first night in his new house was strange. It was quiet being all by himself in the woods.

The strangest thing was that Nico didn't feel like he was alone. But as the night past, he did sleep; he slept truly for the first time since he had first came to the school.

So as Nico went to school, he felt a new brush of confidence as he walked through the halls. As everyone passed him, he didn't care what they thought of him or what they saw when they saw him.

And for the first time in what felt like ever, he was actually looking forward to going to his defensive class. So when he arrived, he ignored the eyes that fell on him.

"Look, the freak decided that he was going to show up," Octavian snickered to his friends, arms crossed as he looked Nico dead in the eyes so he knew he was talking about him.

"Shut up Octavian," Nico spat at him, turning his head to look him back.

"Ooo," Octavian laughed in a mocking tone with his friends that hung around him like a gang. "I'm so scared."

"You should be," Nico told him, taking a few steps towards him. Octavian took a step back, his face falling for a quick second before turning hard.

"Look here, what happened the other day was a fluke. You just happened to discover your powers at the time, so you surprised me."

"You really believe that? That I won by fluke accident?"

Octavian took a few steps forward to be almost chest to chest with Nico, staring down at him with hard hatred.

"Yes," he spat back, low and deep.

"Wanna prove that?"

"Bring it, shit face."

Octavian was the one to walk away first, shooting Nico a glare over his shoulder as the teacher started to talk to the class.

Nico wasn't listening, only finding himself lost in thought. So much had happened recently that he wasn't even sure what he was doing.

But while Nico was lost in his own mind, the teacher explained that they were going to be taking a break from magic use for a while, saying it wasn't because of any reason, but it obviously was about what occurred a few days back, and that they would continue on doing simple combat.

"Now, get together with your partner," she had stated, hands on her hip as she watched the class slowly come together.

Nico looked up, watching as Octavian stared him down as he came over, ignoring his friends as they sneered at Nico from behind Octavian's back.

"You're going down, shit face," he mouthed, his sunken-in eyes sending him threats was he came forward. But Nico said nothing.

"Now, we will be going one at a time to make sure no one gets hurt," Mrs. O said, sending her glance over to Nico as she spoke.

The first pair that went was made up of a small girl with coal-black hair and perfectly winged eyeliner, and a buff man that sported the same tie as Leo had, a small scar running over his cheekbone. As they went, everyone watched as the girl flipped her male partner over her knee, sending him crashing down to the ground, smirking as he looked up to the girl. She offered him a hand as he stood up while the teacher moved over to the next group.

A total of three groups after them went before it was Nico and Octavian's turn. The teacher didn't say anything while she watched them get ready, knowing perfectly well what was going on between them. She knew this most likely was going to end with someone covered in blood, so she got ready as she told them they could start.

The fight didn't last long, ten seconds max, but the time between she said start and the moment it ended, everyone held their breath, watching with anxiety as they stared one another down.

"Go."

Both of them got ready, eyes glued on the other, studying and watching every single movement the other made, down to every twitch the other made.

Octavian threw the first punch, but it was dodged by Nico who ducked, turning on his heel to meet Octavian who moved quickly on his feet to face Nico. When Octavian was about to throw the next punch, Nico beat him to it. When Nico's fist made contact, Octavian's head snapped back, his readied punch falling with him.

Nico's knuckled were bloodied and raw. Octavian shot his hand to cover his nose, glaring daggers at Nico as his nose continued to bleed, running through his fingers. The teacher ran over to him as he stayed on the ground, wiping blood away with his free hand.

Nico grabbed his hand, looking down at the marks that littered his knuckles. As he looked down, trying to figure out why it looked like that, a crazy thought crossed his mind; were those teeth marks?

"Will!" the teacher yelled at the blond who was passing by and was rushing over after spotting the incident.

Nico changed his sight from his knuckle to Octavian who moved his his hand away from his mouth just long enough to smile, flashing his teeth and the blood that was obviously not from his nose.

People pushed Nico out of the way as they rushed to Octavian's side, making sure he was okay. Will was the only one allowed to get close to him, kneeling down to be face to face with his housemate.

"Let me see," he told him, voice stern as Octavian kept his sight on the boy standing, holding onto his pounding hand as he did as he was told.

Will already discarded his jacket and had his hair thrown into a small ponytail, a pair of medical gloves finding themselves on his hand as he touched Octavian's nose, gently trying to see if it'll move.

"This will only hurt for a small moment," Will warned him before his hands started to glow.

"Fuck!" Octavian yelled, yanking his head back away from Will. "The fuck, Solace?"

"I told you it would hurt," Will told him, voice still stern, eyes hard. Will stood up, taking his bloodied gloves off. "Now, ice it if you want the swelling to go down."

Nico was done watching, so he turned on his heel to face away. No one cared where he went, they never did, mainly because they thought he was going to hurt them.

As he made his way, ignoring the scene Octavian was still milking, he ignored as Will spotted him and shouted his name.

"Nico!"

"Go away," Nico muttered, rolling his eyes while he continued to walk away from the blond that huffed and rushed to catch up with him.

"Nico!" Will called out again, trying to wave him down, jacket still abandoned on the ground behind him.

"What?!" Nico shouted, turning around, brows furrowed.

"What's wrong?" Will asked, face turning soft and confused as he caught up to the steaming boy with the bloodied hand.

"'What's wro...'" Nico breathed, almost pity laughing at himself, "What's wrong?! Really, Will, what's wrong? Is that really what you're asking me?"

"Nico, I'm not trying to-"

"You're not trying to what, Will? God, why do you care so much?"

"I care because I do, why do I need a reason?" Will replied, more frustrated than anything, still discombobulated by Nico's sudden outburst.

"Well, stop, okay? I don't need your fucking help, and stop thinking that I do!" Nico shouted, screaming those words that cut Will like glass.

Nothing passed between them as they stood there in silence. The wind was a deadly reminder that they were actually still there there, that there was more than just them in the world.

Nico's chest rose and fell rapidly, everything leaving him at once. As he stood there watching the wind blow Will's hair in a different direction, the way his face fell and became hard, he could feel his ears heat up and his heart race. He knew he fucked up.

"Really?" Will started, his words cold and hard, damaging by just their sounds. "That's what your going with? You know, I just thought that maybe you needed someone who was willing to be nice to you for once. Everyone hates you, and I wondered why, but now I understand. You push everyone away, you make _sure_ no one likes you."

Hearing those words were worse than anything he could imagine. He knew people thought that of him, he even heard some of them say them just out of his view. But hearing it come from the blond broke him. He wanted to cry, God, did he want to cry.

Standing there with his hand bleeding, one of the only people that could be considered his friend telling him that he only pitied him, it hurt more than anything had the entire time he was here. Nico felt empty and felt like crying, so he did the only thing he knew how to do: Stand there like nothing bothered him, holding back the tears that threatened to fall.

Neither of them moved, they just stood there. Nico knew that there was no going back from this, he knew that if he was going to leave things like this, he might as well finished the blow himself, making sure he had the last word in.

"Like I care," he muttered.

Will, who had been waiting to see if Nico would go back on his words, shot his head up at those words, and watched with a hardened expression as the boy continued to stand there, unmoving.

"Fine," Will muttered as he turned to walk away to grab his jacket.

As Will walked away, Nico watched through blurry eyes Will's retreating figure. After Will left the area, Nico sniffled quietly, wiping the tears away with his clean hand.

Nico headed back over to the class, sitting down on the bench that was off to the side. As everyone was talking with one another, gushing over Octavian and his extended melodrama, the teacher took a seat beside Nico, sighing.

"Look," she started, "I know it's not your fault, but I think it would be better if you changed your class to a different one."

Nico just stared ahead as his teacher tried to kick him out of the class. Just as things were getting better, they had to get worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, how was it?  
> I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please let me know your thoughts. I love hearing everything you have to say, becuase I already know the outcome!  
> Anyways, thank you all for sticking around for this long, it really means a lot to me! Tell everyone about this story! Get the word out! lol, you don't have to actually do that.  
> Kitty out!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I am way too tired! Enjoy!

"You had to get worse," Nico muttered after he woke up, staring down at his hand that had grown to change colour to a mixture of pigments that really concerned himself.

He sighed as he fell back into bed, throwing his hands up. As he laid in the quiet room, he truly felt relaxed, like he was the only one in the world.

The wind whistled through the window seal that was slightly lifted, giving the room life.

With a huff, Nico sat up and headed to the bathroom and turned on the light, silently thanking Leo for fixing the electrical and pluming in the house. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, sighing as he turned on the water, counting to three then shoving his hand under the water to clean.

"One, two, three." Pain rushed over his hand as the water cleaned out the infected area, hand shaking. "Fuck!"

He kept it there, waiting for the pain to subside. When he hauled his hand out, the infection was more obvious than when it was covered in fresh blood from over the night.

"Great," he muttered before reaching for a hand rag and tying it around his hand, knowing that he would have to get it checked out. And doing that, he would have to walk into the infirmary with his head hung low in defeat.

So, with a dragging step, he got dressed and ready for the day, making sure he left early enough as to not be late for his morning classes.

...

Nico made his way gingerly to the infirmary, keeping his head low when the other students and staff came in and out, carrying supplies and equipment, talking with one another. Nico stood outside the door, keeping out of sight as a group of girls with vibrant yellow and gold ties laughed about students they had helped the other day.

Takimg a deep breath in, Nico readied himself to go in, his hand poorly wrapped in a damp cloth and his tie crooked. He counted to three before heading in, silently admitting defeat.

When Nico spotted Will, something he was hoping he would avoid, but apparently not, he took another deep breath in and cleared him mind. He made his way forward, shyly smiling as he made his way in and out of other people.

Will had his hair in his usual messy ponytail, but it was less tamed. He looked exhausted, eye bags prominent, but his natural glowing skin made it look almost nonexistent. His jacket was tossed in the back of his chair, exchanged for the lab coat he sported instead.

Will was deep in concentration, pen tapping rhythmically on the table as he bit the bottom of his lips, blond locks falling effortlessly over his eyes by merely strands. Nico felt almost embarrassed watching him like that.

"Um," a girl with strawberry-blonde hair spoke softly, placing a gentle hand on Nico's shoulder, "is there anything I can help you with?" She smiled gently, but it carried an awkward undertone as she blushed softly.

"Oh, I'm just.." Nico tried to explain, feeling his ears turn hotter after knowing that she had caught him staring at Will without realizing he had done it to begin with. Words had abandoned him, so instead of saying his reason, he simply raised his hand, showing his injury.

She smiled, trailing her hand off of Nico's shoulder as she turned and headed over to Will, placing a hand on his shoulder. He dropped his pen and turned his head to face her as she whispered something into his ear. His face turned several different emotions, such as confusion, embarrassment, and boredom. Will rolled his eyes as the girl smirked, laughing as she walked back towards Nico, taking him by his shoulder and leading him over to an empty bed.

"Just wait here," she said, still smiling as she turned around, laughing at Will who shook his head, rolling his eyes again before heading over to where Nico was sitting, the cloth still wrapped around his hand.

Without an exchange of words, Will took Nico's hand in his, and removed the cloth. The blond was taken back by the sight for a second, shocked by the severity of it. His face turned hard as he brushed his fingers over the wound, trailing the different veins as he passed.

Will sighed, dropping the hand that was trailing to his side.

"Look," he started, adverting his eyes to the ground before looking up and meeting Nico's, "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday, I was just-"

"No," Nico shot out, interrupting him with his sudden words.

Will looked confused at first, then it slowly turned to hurt, as if Nico was denying his apology.

"No," Nico reiterated, taking a deep breath, looking away from the blue eyes before him. "What I mean, is..." He took a deep breath before sneaking a glance at Will before looking away again. "Don't apologize. It was my fault. I was the one that pushed you away when I should have listened. Now I'm here with my hand worse than it was yesterday, so it's my fault and I'm sorry."

Will was dumbfounded, he thought Nico was going to tell him off again, refuse to hear him out for his outbreak, but here he was, apologizing to him. Will smiled, but he tried to hide it, looking away and at the ground as he shifted in place.

"I yelled at you," Will pointed out, looking back at Nico directly in the eyes.

"Yeah, but I provoked you," Nico replied, relaxing into the warm hands of the blond who took Nico's injured hand back into his, trailing the bone structure with his feeble fingers.

"Well," Will started, "looks like we ended it."

The two of them sat in comfortable silence while Will continued to exam it. Nico assumed he didn't need to touch the injury as much as he was, but he wasn't sure why Will was doing just so. As he continued, Will's face turned hard, his brow furrowing together with thought.

"Octavian right?" he asked, focusing directly on the infected area.

"Yeah, why?" Nico asked.

"That bastard did this on purpose," Will told him, voice angry.

"What do you mean?"

Will looked up at him, leaning in. "You see these markings?"

"Yeah, he used his teeth," Nico told him, confused on to what Will's point was.

"Not just that, these right here." Will pointed to the markings, but pointed to what seemed to be burn markings. "He used magic when he did it. He cursed it to rot, that's why it's more infected than it should have been."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah," Will nodded, looking back up into Nico's eyes, smiling. "No one in the house really likes him. He's annoying, selfish, and just a straight up dick."

"Will," the girl with strawberry-blonde hair called out as she walked by, shaking her head.

"Whatever," he called back, turning to face Nico once again. "Anyways, I'm glad you almost broke his nose yesterday. He deserved it, and that time before, my god I never laughed so hard in my life!"

Nico watched with a small smile on his lips as Will continued to go on about how awful Octavian was, laughing at the thought.

"He complained so much about you that I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd say he likes you."

Nico pretended to throw up in his mouth, mainly to cover the fact that it actually made him feel sick.

"Don't even joke about that," Nico said, trying not to laugh as Will's face lit up, a faint blush dusting his cheeks.

"Yeah, Will, we wouldn't want that, now would we," the girl said again, walking by once more.

Will picked up a pen from off the side table and threw it at her.

"Kayla, get out of here, will you? Don't you have other people you need to bug?" Will shot, whipping his head behind him to face her as she laughed, waving her hand nonchalantly.

Nico was smiling when Will turned back, sighing. He smiled back at him, meeting him in the eye.

"Anyways," Will started, rolling his eyes, "I'm quiet surprised it didn't get worse, this is extremely mild, and unless that idiot was holding back severely or was really thrown off, then I'm not sure on why it's like this."

"Well," Nico started, looking over his shoulder to seem casual, "nothing has been quiet 'normal' since I got here, y'know."

Will laughed, brightening his face like the morning sun. "Well, that would make a lot of sense."

The two of them shared a laugh, letting the gentle atmosphere pass over them. Nico felt comfortable here, in the infirmary next to Will. He wasn't sure why, but the thought of having to do this again didn't bug him as much as it did before.

"Anyways," Will said after Nico coughed, "this will only hurt for a moment, I have to clean out the infection then heal the wound."

Will closed his eyes, placing his hand over top of Nico's, and took a deep breath in. Nico flinched at the pain, but he stayed quiet. Nico clenched his teeth and eyes shut, taking a deep breath as he whined, a low noise escaping the back of his throat.

"Almost done," Will informed him, almost looking pained as well. Nico's hand started to shake violently in the blond's hands, worrying Will. Just a few seconds later, Will let go as Nico took his hand back with a violent twitch.

"God dammit that hurt," he exclaimed, cradling his hand in his arms.

"Well, look's like it's better," Will said reluctantly, letting out a sigh of relief. Will reached over and grabbed a roll of bandages and started to wrap his hand, taking Nico's hand back in his own

"It better because that really hurt," Nico muttered back, caressing his hand freshly wrapped, trying to make the sting go away. Nico looked at Will who smiled softly back at him. "Um... I guess I better be going now," he said, standing up and looking away.

"Oh, yeah," Will said, scratching the back of his neck as he stood up also. As they stood up at roughly the same time, they stood almost chest to chest. As Nico looked up, he was almost within inches of Will's face, his warm breath tickling his eyelashes, his breath smelt of peppermint.

"I should," Nico said awkwardly, pointing to the side, no where in general.

"Yeah," Will agreed dipping his head, almost headbutting Nico by accident, moving over to the side to let him walk out.

As Nico left the area, he waved, looking back a few times over his shoulder on his way out, awkwardly dodging the other workers.

Kayla walked over to meet Will who still stood there like an idiot. She smirked at him, raising a brow.

"Shut up," he said, crossing his arms and walking away.

"What?" she called out, laughing as she threw her hands up.

...

"God," Octavian shouted as he walked into the infirmary, his nose still swollen. "Will! Why is my nose still bigger and brighter than your future?!"

Will sighed, centering himself as he got ready to face his annoying housemate.

"What do you need Octavian, I'm about to head off to class," he said, pulling a forced, fake smile.

"You're the Senior Healer, if I need you to stay, you stay," Octavian told him, sitting in one of the spinning chairs, throwing his feet on Will's desk.

"Octavian," Will started, sighing, "I have my uniform jacket on, I am going to class now. Ask Kayla or Austin because I have a test in my biology class."

"Solace!" he screamed, aggressively flailing his hands about.

"What?" Will exclaimed, turning to face the boy.

"Look at this! It's still swollen."

"You know, you could have bugged me at home, not right before I have to get to class," he said tiredly.

"Yeah, but, what would be the point?" he stated. "If I was there, you would throw me off on to someone else, like you are now."

Will rolled his eyes and sighed. He took his jacket off and tied it around his waste, pretending that he cared.

"What is it?" he asked sarcastically.

"Can't you see?" Octavian pointed to his nose which pulsed red and blue. " _You_ were supposed to fix this."

"Well," Will started, putting on a pair of gloves and examining Octavian's nose, "I did fix it, I just couldn't put so much stress on it or it would have gotten worse," Will blatantly lied to the other blond who didn't understand a single word he was saying.

Octavian was one of the only members of their house that didn't volunteer in the infirmary. Even though some of the members had no healing powers whatsoever, they still helped out in little ways. But Octavian didn't care for helping, he always ditched any responsibility they put on him, so they just stopped.

"Well, can you fix it now?" Octavian demanded, sighing and rolling his eyes.

"I'll see," Will said, rolling his eyes also. He hated putting up with his housemate, he was glad that he stayed away for the most part.

"Good, 'cause your stupid infatuation damaged my perfect face."

Will looked over, brows furrowed. He knew who he was talking about, he had been going on and on about this for weeks.

"Octavian, drop it," Will warned him, his voice getting slowly lower.

"What?" he asked, reading a judgmental brow to his housemate. "You're the one with the weird obsession with him."

"That's rich coming from you. All you talk about is him," Will replied with a poised stature, trying not to reach out and strangle the blond.

"Yeah, but mines more like I want to kill him," Octavian started, flicking his eyes over at Will with a sinister smirk, "yours is more like you want to fuck him."

"Octavian!" Kayla intervened, shouting at the blond whom acted like he owned the place. "I will not hesitate to kick you out."

"What? I only speak the true," he said in his defense, pretending to play innocent.

"Octavian!" Kayla snapped, but Will put stern hand out, the entire infirmary silent as they watched the exchange between housemates.

"Enough, Kayla, I can fight my own battles. You don't need to get involved," Will spoke up, watching the blond with intense eyes. "Look, Octavian, I don't know what you think is going on or where you are getting your information, but accusations like these are not tolerated here. So if you wish for me to heal your nose, you better keep your mouth shut and hope to god I'm in a caring mood today."

Everyone was dead silent, the ticking of the clock on the wall being the only source of noise. Will had had enough with him and just wanted to go to class.

"Now, if I heal your stupid, fucking nose, will you leave?" Octavian nodded, blown back by the blond's sudden outburst. "Good. Now, head over to the bed and lie down because I'm going to be late, thanks to you."

Octavian did as he said, rolling his eyes as everyone around them slowly went back to working, trying to focus on their job and not the bickering blonds.

...

As Nico made his way to his magical history class, he found himself lost in thought. So much had been happening recently that's he wasn't sure what to really focus on. Between the events of moving in to his house - finally - and the drama with Octavian and Will, everything was starting to overload him.

He wouldn't have I worry so much about about Octavian, at least not for a while, mainly because his teacher had "recommended" that he changed his class. She wanted to kick him out, but she had spared his feelings, at least that's how she saw it.

His house was fixed, at least to the level of living in it. He knew he had to do a little more modifications on it to make it perfect, but he had a while, and it wasn't like like it was going anywhere.

The one thing that irked him though was the fact that he swore someone was there with him. He wasn't sure if it were the creepy vibe of the place or because of something more, but the longer he stayed, the more something there seemed to try and reach out to him.

He had planned on talking with Chiron today, mainly when he headed over to pick up his new schedule. Nico had his class changed to what he presumed was a personal training class, one where there wasn't other students or teachers involved.

But as Nico walked, textbooks heavy in his hand, someone shoulder checked him, purposely hitting his books out of his hands.

"Get a life, freak."

Nico wanted to fight back, but everyone was already scared of him, he didn't need any more of the attention. So, like the proper student he was, he sighed and bent down, picking up his papers that had scattered everywhere as some students either laughed at him or ignored him, sometimes stepping on the papers themselves.

"Just freaking great," Nico muttered to himself, huffing a small sigh, he reached over to pick up a stray paper. But as he reached over, someone with strong hands bent down and picked it up.

As Nico took the paper from the man, he looked up and smiled. Will had been passing by and saw the whole thing and made his way over to help.

"Some people," he said, smirking as Nico smiled softly.

"Yeah," he replied.

Will continued to help him, handing him his textbooks and notebook so full of handwritten notes.

"You have really neat writing," Will pointed out while skimming through the pages. In embarrassment, Nico reached out and took the notes forcefully, causing Will to chuckle softly at Nico's sudden blush.

"It's girly," he said, hiding behind a textbook

"I don't think so," Will told him, smiling as he continued to squat with Nico who was rearranging his work. "As a doctor, or, at least, a doctor-to-be, my handwriting is really messy, so it's really rare for me to see neat handwriting at all."

"Oh," Nico managed to say, trying to hide his reddened face from the blond. Will smiled back, standing up after Nico had all of his notes back. As Nico stood himself, the bell sounded, signaling the start of class.

"Looks like I better be heading off," Will told him, shifting one foot to the other before smiling softly and waving his head, turning on his heel gingerly.

Nico watched with a faint smile as Will walked away, rushing through the crowd of people trying to make their way to class.

With a tired sigh, Nico found a spring in his step, heading down the hall to his next class, which he was now late for.

...

"Remember, you have a test on everything we've covered for the past three weeks on Thursday," his teacher called out, shutting her book.

The moment the bell rang, Nico was up and out of the room, his notebooks shoved hastily into his backpack. He wasn't sure where this sudden energy or bouts of enthusiasm had come from, but it was there and he was using.

Nico ran to the front staircase, rushing up past the hoards of people as he hopped several stairs at a time. He rushed up and down halls, gripping ledges to swing around corners. He hadn't felt that alive in a long time, and the rush of air through his lungs stung, but was welcomed.

When he reached the top floor, he slowed his pace, taking a deep breath as he calmed himself, trying to rest his heartbeat. With one last inhale, Nico flatted his uniform, trying to seem proper, and knocked on the door, waiting for a response.

"Come in," Chiron called out to him.

Nico pressed his hand to the door and pushed, slowly opening it. He entered wearily, peeking his head around first.

Chiron stood behind his desk once again, examining a document, turning the pages with focus.

"Um," Nico started, coughing after his voice cracked.

"Nico," Chiron spoke with enjoyment. He shut the folder, setting it a drawer, closing it swiftly. "So glad you could join me.  Are you here for your new schedule?"

"Yeah," Nico muttered, looking around as continued to make his way over to the chair in front of Chiron's desk. "I actually have a few questions, if that's okay."

"Oh?" Chiron spoke, looking over him with amusement. "And what would that entail?"

"Well," he started, eyes running over the seemingly endless shelves of books, "it has been bugging me for some time, but what is the name of my house?"

As Nico asked, Chiron's stature fell, but only for a second before turning hard with age, as if a painful memory was coming back to him. He sighed, taking a seat in his leather chair.

"Nico, the place you now call home is one that was thought to have been abandoned, never to have been needed again."

Nico sat there, confused. What did the Headmaster mean by "abandoned"? Sure, it had hadn't been used for quite some time and he did have to restore is, but the way he talked about it seemed as if it was never meant to house someone ever again. But if that was true, where did Nico stand in all this? And if it was meant like that, the part with the tie made sense. Also Chiron not expecting him.

"What do you mean?" Nico asked, leaning forward and resting his weight in his knees.

Chiron took a long, deep sigh as he relaxed in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Nico, there is so much that I, myself, question. Such as why you are here, how you are here." Nico questioned that, confused on his language, speaking like he had magically shown up one day and no one knew why, suppose to the truth where him and Hazel had brought him here, almost by force, might he add.

"But your presence here is one of great surprise, though. A child of your ability has not been seen for quite some time. The place you call home is a house for those who harness the darkness," Chiron continued to explain, making Nico sit on the end of his chair, trying to figure out everything he said meant.

"So," Nico thought slowly, trying to calm his running mind, "would that make my house... Hades?"

Chrion took a deep breath in and stayed silent, smiling almost sadly as he stared Nico back, eyes hard with age. His face twisted, thoughts rushed his mind of the past.

"That would make the most sense," he said, looking back at the boy in front of him, his eyes coming out of a hazy fog.

If Nico was in the Hades house, things started to make sense. The creature, the powers, the lack of other members. But it is the last factor that still ate away at him. Yes, the other households had fewer members than others, but they all had more than one, why was Nico the only one without multiple housemates?

"Chiron," Nico spoke up after moments of silence, "why am I the only one there?"

Chiron rolled this around in his mind, closing his eyes as if he was going to sleep. He seemed relaxed, but the way his face held, it was like he was watching a movie in his mind.

"You weren't the only one there once," Chrion finally spoke, keeping his eyes closed. "A long time ago, there were others." Chiron opened his eyes and sat up, looking at Nico almost with a pitiful look. "They had built their house in the woods to keep away from others, to be isolated. I never understood why they wanted that, but they insisted, so when they were building the houses, they worked together, the little number of members they had, and cleared the way, creating a path.

"They had a garden once. They cared for pomegranate trees, planted flowers that preferred the dark, they had their own community. But soon it got to the point where there was less and less of them, skipping to now when I thought there was none left." Chiron stood up, picking up a small slip of paper, and walked around his desk. He stood beside Nico and handed it to him. "I don't have much to say, much that will be useful, but my dear Nico, enjoy your time here, make sure you don't regret anything in the end. 'Cause the day will come where you look back on your life, wishing you would have done differently. Live, Nico, live like you may not get another chance."

Nico took the slip of paper, entranced by Chiron's words. He wasn't too sure what he meant by it, but he was willing to listen.

Nico nodded, standing up and looking at the slip of paper. It held his changed schedule. He thanked Chiron for listening and made his way out, looking back only once to see something fall on Chiron's face, again, seeming as if the painful memory had flooded back.

...

Nico had gone over the class a thousand times, but he still had no idea on where to go. The slip said his defensive training class had been replaced with personal training, which he only assumed that it was going to be a class just to himself.

But the longer he walked, the more lost and confused he got. He may have been in the school for a while, but not long enough to know where every single room was.

So, as he walked down the halls aimlessly, he thanked whoever was willing to listen when he ran into Hazel who was on her way to study.

"Oh thank God, Hazel, you have to help me," he pleaded, almost scaring Hazel at the suddenness of his approach.

"Oh my! Nico, what is it?" she asked, placing a hand to her chest, eyes wide.

"I need help finding this place," he told her, showing her the slip of paper. She took it and turned it in her hand, thinking for a second before smiling.

"I know exactly where that is," she said, turning on her heel with a pep in her step. "Follow me."

Nico followed her, fiddling with a loose end of his bandages, trying his best not to pull and unravel it. It hadn't been a problem until just now.

She lead him out the back, saying it was just easier to bypass all of the students inside, and continued to lead him around.

The wind blew her loose strands of hair in front of her vision, but she didn't seem to mind it one bit. Hazel looked down at Nico's hand, raising a brow to the wrapped appendage.

"Stop playing with it," she said, smiling as she swatted his other hand away. "How long have you had that?"

"Um, few hours, why?"

"Doesn't look like you really need it any longer," she pointed out.

"Why?" he asked.

"You got it healed by them, didn't you?" Nico nodded, watching her as they continued to walk outside. "You shouldn't need that much then. They tend to work fast."

Nico flexed his hand, watching the flexible material bend with the motion.

"Doesn't really hurt anymore either," he pointed out, smiling to himself.

"That's good, don't want to lose your hand," Hazel joked, giggling softly as Nico huffed, smiling in return.

As they continued to walk, Nico was almost thrown off when Will approached him, his smile as bring as usual, even rivaling the afternoon sun.

"Hey, Nico," he called, jogging up to the boy, almost not even seeing Hazel completely. His hair was in its usual ponytail like it was whenever he was on duty. "How's your hand doing?"

Nico looked down at his hand, doing almost anything to look anywhere but at the blond. "It's, uh... it's doing fine, I guess."

Will grabbed his hand, brows drawn together.

"You should have come to get them off," he scolded him, giving Nico the look he carried whenever he was doing his "doctor job".

"I don't need to see you for every little detail," Nico rebelled, more so due to the fact that Hazel was beside him, snickering like a school girl who new a secret.

"Well," Will got defensive, but in more of a joking tone, "I guess I'll just let your hand rot off, then."

Nico rolled his eyes at the blond's drama. "Whatever," he said, looking away and sticking his hand out.

Will smiled, wiping his hands on his coat, mainly due to the lack of gloves on his person. He slowly started to unravel the wrapping, watching with close eyes as he held Nico's hand gently in place. When he removed the wrapping fully, the imprints of the pattern on the fabric was still on his skin.

Will ran his hand over top of the bone structure, feeling every inch to make sure there was no collateral damage that he wasn't aware of. When he was satisfied with the process and lack of scar, he gently let Nico's hand go, smiling as he wound up the bandages in his hand before placing them in his pocket.

"Just take it easy," Will warned as Nico placed his now cold hand into his other. If there was one thing he wasn't going to say in that moment, it was the fact that as Nico held his own hand close, it continued to shake, as if he had let out a surge of power.

"I will," Nico told him, trying to hold back a smile as Will smiled with his eyes, full of kindness and trust.

"Will!" Kayla shouted from behind Will, waving her hand in her white lab coat.

"Coming," he shouted back over his shoulder, eyes still on Nico before he waved to both him and Hazel. "See you later," he said before turning on his heel and making his way towards his housemate.

Hazel looked over at Nico who was still watching Will, rubbing his thumb over top of the hand that Will had held. She elbowed him, smirking as he looked back.

When Hazel winked, Nico rolled his eyes.

"Don't you dare," he warned, but as Hazel continued forward, a hard smirk and laugh building, she acted as if she hadn't done anything.

"I didn't say anything," she said innocently.

"Shut up!" Nico yelled as Hazel started walking faster, the two of them making it their in no time flat.

...

It had been just what Nico assumed. The class he had been assigned had been entirely personally-based learning. It was a room that consisted of just enough space for anything that Nico would need for training. It started out empty, but would change to his needs, whether that was an opponent or a specific environment.

He had messed around a little in the beginning, seeing how the room worked. It seemed easy, it just did what he thought or what he told it, reacting to his thoughts and emotions to better help him.

He stood in the middle, an entire side of a wall was a transparent window. He stretched slightly, shaking out his leg and hands, taking a deep breath before readying himself.

"Let's see what this bad boy can do."

Nico raised his hand, just willing anything to happen, and as he felt power swell in the palm of his hand, a target appeared on the wall, moving side to side. Nico released the energy and let it fly, hitting the end of the target.

When the target smashed upon impact, Nico felt a wave of adrenaline rush through him, making him feel so much stronger. He felt alive as another one popped up. He readied himself and fired, getting it closer to the middle that time.

Nico started to laugh with excitement, his hand and whole body shaky.

"Holy shit," he muttered, "this is so much better than Octavian."

And he continued to try different techniques, things he could only have imagined. When he wanted one, he would reach his hand out to the side and will a sword into his hand, ecstatic when the weapon came to him with ease.

The room had generated people who came at him, grey humanoids that rushed at him with their own weapons. As he swung, they would disappear upon impact and another one would reappear, coming at him at full force.

This was more than he could ever have wished for.

...

Even though he was tired and sore form training, Nico still found himself in the library with a smile on his lips and a book in hand, trying to cram two entire centuries of history into his mind in one night. He wasn't good at American history, and now he was expecting to know the entire history of _magic_? He knew he was going to fail this test, at this point, it was only by the thought of how much.

But he still sat there, even as people came and went, leaving him one of the last people in the library. He had wrappers littered all over his table, books and pens jumbled into the mess. A water bottle long forgotten knocked over long ago.

He had barely even started connecting the timelines and understanding something by the time the clock ticked nine at night. Most people had long left, leaving Nico with only three others. It wasn't until he was about to give up did some light shine on this hopeless situation.

"Hey," a voice whispered behind him. Nico turned around and looked at the owner of the voice. Behind him was Will, hair loose and messy as he carried several books in hand. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I should be asking you that," he replied as Will leaned over and took the seat beside Nico, setting his mountain of books beside Nico's mess, picking one up.

"Magic history, huh?" he said with a smirk, raising a brow to the younger boy.

"Yeah," Nico said, reaching out and grabbing the book Will had stolen back, "what about it?"

"Nothing," Will replied swiftly, acting casual as he leaned back in the chair that creaked. "Just, I passed this class with a near perfect score last year."

Nico stared blankly at him, judging him intensely.

"What, is this supposed to make me beg on my knees for you to help me?"

Will laughed, dropping his composed stature. "Just dropping subtle hints that I can help you if you need me to."

"Oh yeah, subtle is totally the word I would use." Nico rolled his eyes as he picked his pen back up and started to scribble down notes into his notebook.

Will watched him as he wrote, watched the way his pen moved on the paper effortlessly. But when Will noticed the confused look on Nico's face, he couldn't help it. Will picked up Nico's note book which he was writing on mid sentence, leaving a strange line in the middle of the word.

"Hey," Nico aggressively whispered to Will whom simply looked over his notes.

"Right here," Will said, pointing to a date Nico had written down, "what does that say?"

"Seventeen-ninety-four, why?" Nico asked, looking at Will skeptically.

"It's supposed to be seventeen-eighty-four. Rigen was born before the law was passed."

Nico looked through his notes with intensity, trying to see what Will said was true. And the more he looked, the more things started to line up.

"Wait," Nico muttered, glancing over at several different notes he had written and compared to the text book. He continued to scribble more words down at a faster pace. "So that means that Rigen invented the sun orb in his thirties, not twenties."

"Correct," Will spoke with a smile as he leaned on his hand, watching as Nico's face slowly lit up.

It was almost magical to him, watching as the younger boy worked and thought. He had this aura about him that most people wanted to stay away from, but to Will, it only pulled him in closer.

Nico looked up from his notes and gingerly looked over at Will, an embarrassed look falling on his face.

"Think you could help me study?" Nico asked timidly, trying to look anywhere but into the blond's eyes. Will smiled, lightening up the candle-lit room.

"Yeah," he replied, smile wide and lopsided.

...

Nico wasn't sure how long they were studying, but even then librarian had long gone left, leaving the two of them being the last ones there, the odd person stopping by to pick up or drop off a book.

"So," Nico spoke up randomly after moments of silence, "why are you here this late, anyways?"

Will looked up from his own notes, hair still falling in his face.

 _He needs a haircut_ , Nico thought.

"I spend so much of my time in the infirmary, I don't get a lot of time to do my homework," Will explained.

"That's not fun," Nico muttered, raising his brows at the load that Will takes on.

"Well, it's the price I have to pay for being the Senior Healer." Will shrugged, but smiled, looking over at Nico's notes. "This is all right."

Nico smiled as he looked at his work, hiding behind his hair as a faint blush brushed his cheeks. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Will replied, smiling back.

The two of them continued to scribble words down before Will broke the silence that had accumulated once more.

"So," he started, taking a deep breath in and placing his pen down, "has Hazel told you about the year-end dance that goes on every year?"

Nico looked up from his book with confusion.

"No, why?" he asked, looking Will in the eyes which danced in the low lighting.

"Well, I was just wondering if you were going, is all."

Nico thought about it for a second before shaking his head, chuckling lowly.

"No, why would I?"

"Maybe some one asked you?"

"Why would anyone do that?" he asked, serious in his words but joking in his tone.

"Oh you know," Will through around his hands in an attempt to ease the atmosphere, "maybe because someone like's you."

"Again, why?" Nico asked, setting his pencil down and looking the blond in the eye. "If you start going on about Octavian again, I am literally going to throw up this time."

Will laughed genuinely, Nico hadn't truly seen before. Will through his head back, his entire torso shaking as he gasped for air. This made Nico laugh, the two of them forgetting about their work and just enjoying one another. It had been a long time since Nico last laughed with a friend like this, just the two of them. And he missed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And to your left you see not angst. For the first time in a while.  
> Anyways, I hope you are enjoying this, I know I am with writing it!  
> We got our scrips for Singin in the Rain and i'm so pumped!  
> let me know you thoughts and feelings on this, please, it makes me so happy hearing from you all!  
> Kitty out!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, I am really cutting this close.

Will sat at his desk in the infirmary, scribbling down notes onto a loose piece of paper, trying to concentrate, tapping his pencil on the hardwood table. He had a fist of hair balled in his hand as his foot tapped to the rhythm of his pencil. Even with everything going on, which was nothing, he was still having a hard time trying to stay on task.

With a heavy sigh, he started to aggressively erase lines that he had made while trying to focus. A heavy slam followed the dropping of his pencil, his head leaning back.

Kayla, his housemate and fellow resident at the infirmary, came over with a cup of tea in hand. She set it down gently next to him with a soft _thud._

"You okay?" she asked, sending him a small smile as he opened his brilliant blue eyes to stare back. He smiled.

"Yeah," he said, sitting up and straightening his back. "Just tired, is all."

"Didn't get much sleep?" she asked, sitting down on a near by chair and pushing it over.

Will shook his head, closing his eyes as he reached for the steaming cup, bringing it to his lips, not caring how hot it was. He let the burning liquid slide down his throat, burning almost the whole way down, but it woke him up and got him alert.

"Thanks," he muttered, relaxing a bit for the first time in a while.

"No problem," she replied, smiling as she took a sip of her own, blowing the top gently as to try and cool it off. "Anyways, what has you so worked up that you're tired," she pointed out, turning to look at the open book on his desk, "and studying more on job?"

Will looked up at her and sighed, leaning his head back.

"I'm crazy," he said, closing his eyes and trying to hide behind his empty hand.

"Oh no," Kayla muttered, smiling as she set her cup down, reaching for Will's so he wouldn't spill it. "Now you have to tell me."

Will looked through his fingers, feeling his face go red.

"You already know," he mumbled, still trying to look away, his hand dragging down his face.

Kayla laughed, smiling to herself as she brought her feet up to her chair, sitting cross-legged.

"Really?" she asked, smiling widely. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know!"

Kayla continued to laugh at him, shaking her head as she reached up to remove Will's hands that retreated back to his face, holding them steady in his hands.

"Look," she started, smiling with a caring glean in her eye, "everything will be fine, Will."

"But what if something happens like last time?"

"Will, if what you are talking about and I am talking about are the same thing, then you have to believe me when I say that if he hurts you, I will hurt him." Kayla continued looking Will dead in the eyes, her tone serious, yet caring. She thought for a moment before her face dropped. "We are talking about your huge crush on that Nico dude, right?"

"Shh!" Will hushed her violently, bringing his hands up to her mouth to cover it, looking around to make sure no one had heard her. "Careful with your voice, will you? Don't want the entire school knowing."

Kayla laughed as she pulled his hands away from her mouth.

"I don't even know what you see in him," she joked, leaning back in her chair after reaching for her tea again. "Like, he's so brooding and weird."

"I don't know," Will thought out loud, "just, something about him intrigues me."

"Oh yeah?" Kayla continued to sound interested as Will suddenly sat up, reaching for his bag.

"Yeah," he started as he had his head down while he rummaged through his belongings. "And that got me thinking, why wasn't there any others like him here?"

"Oh really?" Kayla rolled her eyes, but was still smiling gently as she took a sip, watching his lazy eyes as Will continued to frantically pull things out.

"So, I searched the records, and I have found nothing on anyone from that house in, like, decades," Will explained, hauling out a notebook, opening it to a page somewhere in the middle and handed it to Kayla. She took his hesitantly, but as she started to read over it, her eyebrows furrowed together and she sat up, placing her tea back on the table.

"Will," she started, but her words fell ill.

"I know," he whispered as he got closer to her, leaning in. "There has to be a reason for this, I just know there is."

Kayla looked up from the notebook and studied Will.

"What are you entailing?"

"Wanna help me on a personal project?"

"Will," Kayla warned, "no."

"Will yes," Will said with a smirk.

...

"Hazel," Nico shouted, trying to hold onto his things in one hand as the smaller girl dragged him crossed the main path, passing the water fountains, "slow down!"

"No time," she shouted back, smirking as she continued to use her size to her advantage as she weaved in and out of other students.

"What do you mean 'no time'?"

"You'll see!"

Nico managed to not fall over, even with the smaller girl pulling him through the crowds. His wrist was starting to hurt from her grip and the pulling of the appendage.

When Hazel finally let go, Nico was thrown into a sudden stop, rubbing his wrist as he tried not to trip. Hazel continued to walk calmly forward, waving to a group of people.

"Um," Nico mumbled, cradling his wrist with his other one, books shoved under his arm.

Hazel rolled her eyes and turned over her shoulder, waving her hand to signal him to follow her. Nico wanted to say something, but the words fell deaf on his tongue. So, head jogged up to stand just behind her, head keeping low to avoid the eye contact with the new people.

"Hazel!" a boy that was easily twice Nico's size called out, his eyes squinting either from the sun or his smile. His jet black hair was cut military style and his tie bore the colours of deep red and brown.

"You're late," joked the only guy Nico knew there; Leo was the guy that had helped them fix up the house a while back, and as he swung his hand in the air with no control, Hazel simply rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Sorry," she said, throwing her thumb behind her, "but this one wanted to take the long way." When she stopped, Nico adverted his eyes as everyone stared at him. "Everyone, this is Nico, my friend. Nico, this is everyone."

As Hazel introduced him, Nico felt small, the eyes of the group burning into him.

"Yea! Aren't you that guy who totally beat up Octavian?" a boy with short blond hair said, his glasses falling lopsided from his goofy grin, a scar on his upper lip predominant.

Nico nodded, not wanted anyone to know him. But little to his surprise, the boy raised his hand and walked over, going in for a high-five. Nico brought his hand up, confused on what was going on.

"That is so awesome, dude! Like, no one can stand him. That was a gift to see, wish I could have been there for the fight, though."

"That's Jason," Hazel introduced him, "he's basically everyone's mother."

When Nico looked up at the blond, he nodded with a wide smile, his arms crossed over his wide chest.

"Hazel think's she's the mom friend, but she got nothing on me."

"You wish," Hazel shot back, smirking as she rolled her eyes. "Anyways, Frank is the tall one with the short black hair - he's my boyfriend. The short one beside him is Leo, but you already know that."

"Hey!" Leo called out, throwing his hands up.

"You have Piper beside him," Hazel continued, completely ignoring Leo as he pouted for dramatic flare, "she's Jason's girlfriend. Annabeth and Percy are next, they are also a couple. So basically everyone here is together, but Leo."

"'Cause no one can handle all this," Leo said, jokingly running his hands down his body to emphasis his point.

"No on _want_ _s_ all that," Nico muttered, but everyone heard and laughed, causing Leo to get red. He rolled his eyes and muttered something in Spanish.

"He seems pretty cool," Piper, he thought, said, a small smile coming from her. "Nice to meet you, Neeks."

"Please don't call me that-"

"Too late!" Jason chimed in, a wholesome look brightening his face.

Nico sighed, but everyone just laughed.

...

Nico was covered in sweat, his shirt stuck to his body, and his breath was heavy. He needed to remember to bring a change of clothes to train in, his always got dirty and wet not even half way through.

But class was coming to an end and he sort of didn't want to go. He was having fun letting his actions do the talking for once. Nico might have been beating up highly advanced software or magical floating pixels, but it was a nice stress reliever.

So by the time he was finished, his mind was clear and he felt a hundred times better. Nico took his tie from off of the ground where he had thrown his blazer, and wiped his forehead, trying to cool himself down and not be as sweaty.

He gathered his things and exited, looking over to the side where people had gathered, pretending like they weren't just watching him fought. Nico didn't mind, really. It showed that people were no longer scared of him and saw him as human, or they just wanted to see him kill something other than a hot headed blond. Either way, people were starting to treat him better.

As he made his way down the hall, his breath got caught in his throat when a hand was placed on his shoulder, scaring the living daylights out of him.

"Hey there," came the voice, which he knew by now to belong to Will.

Nico stopped dead in his tracks and took a deep breath before letting it all out, slowly turning his head to peer behind him.

"You almost gave me a heart attack, Will," Nico said breathlessly, placing a hand over his chest to still his pounding heart.

"I'm so sorry," Will said, pulling his hand back, looking genuinely concerned.

"It's fine," Nico sighed, straightening his back after getting his breath back and his heart rate under control. "Anyways, what's up?"

"Oh nothing," Will lied, looking around as they started to walk again, "just was passing by and saw you. Though I would say hi." Will paused for a moment before looking at Nico nervously. "Hi!"

"Wow," Nico laughed, shaking his head as he looked down and continued to walk, "you are such a nerd."

"Hey," Will shouted, catching up to Nico and keeping up with his pace, "I take great offence to that."

"But it's true," Nico smirked, looking over to meet the blond's eyes.

Will had been lying when he told Nico that he had just seen him walking by. In truth, Will wanted to talk to him, needed to, before he chickened out. If anything, he sort of hung back and watched Nico train for a solid five minutes. Will had to give it to him, for someone so knew, he was really good, and it didn't help that he looked really good doing it.

"Have you ever thought about the saying, 'scared like a chicken'?" Will randomly said, mentally cringing at his own words. Of course he had to go and stay the stupidest thing. But when Nico started to laugh, his smile widening, Will felt his chest tighten, something he didn't actually mind.

"You really are a nerd," Nico managed to say in between breaths. Will didn't have to say anything, just enjoying the sound of Nico's laugh was enough.

"Like, they say if you're scared, you're a chicken, but have you seen a chicken? They are so totally willing to fight anyone at anytime, and if that's the definition of scared, then I must be doing this all wrong then." As Will mentally screamed at himself for continuing to talk, Nico couldn't help not containing himself.

Nico had burst out in a full on laugh. His shoulders were shaking, her back hurt from laughing. He wasn't sure when the last time he had smiled like that was, the earliest time being back at the library with Will the other night. Funny, he thought, how whenever he found himself laughing lately, it was because of the blond.

But when Will looked over, his world was complete. He had been so tired the other night that he didn't remember much, which he scolded himself because of. Of course he would forget such an event, just his luck. But standing here, watching this simple boy laugh, the way his lips curled up at the end, he knew it was too late, that he was in too deep.

"Will," Nico smiled, looking up at the boy through his wet, sweaty hair, tears forming in his eyes, "you really are something, aren't you?"

Will only smiled, his mouth turning lopsided as he stared back at the boy.

"Anyways," Will started, looking ahead of him as he took a deep breath in, shaking his hands in place, "any one ask you to the dance?"

"If you're still implying Octavian, I think that ship sailed long ago, buddy, and crashed like the Titanic."

Will smiled and shook his head, his heartbeat calming ever so slightly.

"No way," Will waved off, making his expression seem like he was about to offer Nico a much better deal, "that loser isn't good for a dead mouse."

"I happen to like mice," Nico shot back, putting his hand over his chest as if he was offended, but he was only pretending.

"Well," Will spoke back, acting just as dramatic, "I guess we can't be friends anymore than!"

Nico found himself chuckling again, keeping his sights ahead as they continued to walk, neither of them knowing really where anymore.

"So, as I was saying," Will started, trying to see serious, but as he progressed, his tone changed to seem like he was joking, "you and I should totally go to the dance together."

Nico looked up at the blond, still walking, as he had an expression of confusion, mixed with something akin to someone who wasn't sure if they were joking or not.

"Stop joking around, dude," Nico said after a moment of silence, nudging Will's side with his elbow. "That's gay."

"Oh totally," Will continued to go along, acting as if he had meant it to come off that way, but the longer they walked, the worse Will felt. When Nico had rejected him, whether he knew it or not, Will felt his heart drop. He knew it was stupid, he knew it was stupid to have a _crush_ on a _guy,_ but he genuinely wanted to be his friend above all else, so he threw it behind. Will would act like Nico's dude-guy friend for as long as he needed him to. "Don't you know, you have to be the gayest of the gay here."

Nico smiled, rolling his eyes. "Not gonna lie, I'm pretty sure Octavian would fall under that category."

Will chuckled softly, stopping in his tracks as Nico did before him. He turned to face Will and smiled.

"Well, this is where I turn. You better hurry up to your job before you're late," Nico said, waving as he turned away and headed down the beaten path. "Later."

Will brought his hand up halfheartedly, barely even waving it before letting it fall into a fist and at his side, jaw clenched.

...

When Will arrived back at the infirmary, both Austin and Kayla stood off to the side with their arms crossed as Will set his bag down at his desk.

"What?" he asked, raising a brow as he through his coat on over top of his already bare shirt.

"Why were you gone so long?" Austin questioned, not giving Will an inch. The aforementioned blond simply put his hands up in defense.

"What?" he asked, brows raised and furrowed. "I was just gone for a little bit longer than you expected. I didn't tell you how long I would be."

Kayla rolled her eyes, uncrossing her hands and walking past Will.

"If this had anything to do with Nico, so help me God," she muttered, to which Austin nodded.

"Wait," Will spun around to face the two of them, "you told him?"

"No," Kayla shouted, but Austin simply shrugged.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"Austin! You weren't supposed to tell him," Kayla aggressively whispered, motioning with her head with what she meant.

"Kayla! _You_ weren't supposed to tell him! Or anyone for that matter!" Will exclaimed, standing from his chair to emphasis his point.

"Look," she started, but quickly brought her hands down and turned away.

"Kayla?" Will said, confused on why both her and Austin suddenly turned away. When Will turned around, though, his question had been answered. Octavian, for some reason, had come into the infirmary, by himself, looking around with a glaring eye.

Will sighed, knowing that he was the one that would have to face him.

"Octavian," he said, putting on a fake smile for the blond, "What is it that I can help you with?"

Octavian held a dead face as he looked Will up and down, eyes judging, He looked behind him before looking behind Will, making sure no one was around. With a deep sigh, Octavian walked in closer, still keeping a close eye on everyone within the room.

"Look," he started, his tough front dropping, looking tired and almost bored, "I actually care about you, despite what you and others may think."

Will's brows furrowed, his arms crossing as he tried to figure out what Octavian was doing.

"Oh? Really?" Will replied sarcastically.

Octavian clenched his fist, bringing his hand up to his head as if his head was starting to pound.

"Look," he took a deep breath, trying to not snap at his housemate, "I know this may sound weird, but-" Octavian took a deep breath before continuing "-I need you to be careful."

"And why is that?" Will asked, pursing his lips as he folded his hands and watched Octavian squirm.

"You've been getting really close to that Nico kid lately," he stated, his expression turning serious, something Will hadn't seen in a long time. "I know you're going to assume things, that I'm trying to ruin everything for you, but you know that I was on your side all those years ago."

"Octavian, please don't bring that up," Will pleaded, voice tired. He sighed before dipping his head, letting it hang and bounce. "What is it that you are trying to point out?"

"That I want you to be careful."

"Why?" Will asked, looking back up to meet Octavian's eye.

"Because you may think he's wonderful, special even, but you haven't gone up against him." Octavian pushed himself forward, meeting Will's eyes dead set. "Will, there's something about him that isn't good, and I don't care if you listen to me or not, just don't say I didn't warn you." As Octavian made his way to the door, he stopped before turning back to look over his shoulder to face Will one last time. "Just, please watch your back. Really."

As Octavian walked out, it left Will to his thoughts, running over the things Octavian had said to him previously. He didn't want to listen, but the fact that it was Octavian that came up to him personally, and in such a place, it made him think. He must have had a reason for it, so it nagged him.

What could be so bad about Nico that it would cause Octavian, someone who hated both parties, come to Will and warn him?

He wanted to forget what Octavian had said, but the entire time he worked, it was always in the back of his mind, eating away at him.

...

"Kayla - Kayla - Kayla - Kayla!" Will shouted as he run up to her, an old notebook, leather bound, in his hand.

She shook inwardly to sudden calling of her name. She slowly turned in her chair, smiling awkwardly as she faced the blond that spun her around to face her desk.

"Yes?" she spoke after a small shutter and sigh.

"Look what I found," he piped up like an excited puppy. Will's eyes were wide and full of life as he dropped the notebook on her desk to a preopened page.

"What?" Kayla asked as she looked down at the words scribbled down on the old paper.

"This is-"

"Is this your grandpa's journal from when he was Senior Healer?" Kayla slowly spoke as she picked it up, bringing it up to her face to closer examine the words.

"Oh yeah!" he exclaiming, nodding his head with a satisfied expression.

"Why do you have this out?" she wondered out loud, astonished at what she was looking out.

"Well," he said, leaning on the wall, kicking a chair closer to him, "I was up late last night, and something got me thinking, 'if there hadn't been someone like Nico in a real long time, maybe gramps has something I could use', so I dug it out of my bookshelf, and I found that."

Kayla looked down, eyes focused and brows furrowed as she skimmed over the words that were written with a rush in the strokes.

"You're grandpa was the best Senior Healer this school has ever had," she spoke out as she read the entry out, tracing the words with her finger.

"Exactly! There was no one that could have been Senior Healer other than him, that's why I thought maybe there would be something in there to help."

"And there is," she mumbled, standing up with her hands still wrapped tightly around the pages, grip unbreakable as she walked around. "Right here, it says that when he was first on duty, he wrote that he took in a young girl for what appears to be the same hand markings that you told me Nico had." She looked up at Will who was full of smiles, grin wide and bright.

"I know right!" he exclaimed, reaching over her shoulder to grab the notebook back. "I haven't found anything else yet, but I'm still looking. I hope this goes somewhere, I can't exactly ask him."

The two of them passed smiles between them, looking back down at the notebook before heading back off to continued work.

...

As Nico made his way to his magical history class, he was accompanied by Hazel. They talked about anything and everything, going on and on about small things they had heard, seen, or thought about. It wasn't particularity anything interesting, just things to pass the time.

Hazel and Nico might have shared a class together, but the one before for each of them were on opposite sides of the school resulting in their meeting almost absurdly unlikely.

"So when she took a swing, he thought wrong," Hazel giggled lightly behind her hand, books heavy in the other.

"And he really didn't see where that would have gone wrong?" Nico asked, and Hazel just shook her head, smiling with her eyes. "I can't believe he actually had a chance."

"I'm surprised that he ever thought he had one."

They continued on, smiling and just enjoying the others company as they made their way down the halls and through the crowds of people, throwing comments out here or there.

Just as they had passed a room with a strong scent of cinnamon, Nico stopped in his tracks, face falling. He stood for a moment before he brought his hand up to his chest, brows furrowed, almost like he was in deep thought.

"Nico?" Hazel turned around in confusion after she realised that he was no longer beside her in step.  When she turned around, her face filled with concern, making her way over gingerly to check on him. Hazel placed her books at her side, quickly glancing up to grab Nico's before they fell to the hard floor. She placed her hands at his side to help support his weight.

Nico fought with his breath, bagging it to obey his need for oxygen. He held the fabric with a tight fist, hands shaking as he struggled to calm or even understand what was going on. His chest stung, as if someone was poisoning and stabbing him all at the same time.

His breath was caught in his throat refusing to leave his lungs or allow new air to enter.

"Nico, are you okay?" she asked, now even more concerned for his will being. But Nico didn't answer, nothing would have allowed him to even if he wanted to. "Nico, want me to go get someone?" Hazel, at this point, was ready to rush to the nearest person to tell them to go get some one from the infirmary to help, or to even do it herself.

Nico shook his head, allowing for small breaths to enter. The pain was still there, but it got better. He hadn't felt pain like that ever, well, at least not to the severity.

As he struggled to catch his breath, he allowed for himself to slowly rise, careful as to not bother anyone. Hazel was still worried sick, but when Nico looked down at her with his lips turned upwards, she couldn't help but flash a small smile back, but she wasn't as confident as Nico had seemed.

"I'm fine," he managed to tell her, looking like he was just sprinted there from the other side of the school.

"Okay," she said wearily, slowly removing her hands from his shoulders to let him stand on his own, bending down after to pick up her books.

Nico bent down following suit, hands shaky as the pain went away. His hands still shook and his breath wasn't fully back to normal, but he was in much better condition than he was just five seconds prior. As he picked up his books, his muscles screamed, fighting back with him. They shot up his arms and into his chest, sending a small flair to strike him, but he pushed through it, knowing that he needed to or else it would only get worse.

They continued on to class as if everything was normal, but Hazel couldn't help but watch him with a concerned eye, just to make sure he was okay after all.

...

With lazy eyes, Will continued to scan over his grandfather's journal about his time as Senior Healer, hoping to find anything that could help answer some of his questions. As his eyes scanned over the words, he stood with sudden movements, his chair scrapping back on the tile flooring. His finger followed words, letters quickly passing his eyes as Kayla looked over from her desk, a brow raised.

She headed over, looking over Will's shoulder as he continued to frantically read.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I need to talk with Chiron," Will stated suddenly, causing Kayla to become even more confused.

"What do you mean - Will!" she shouted as Will started to head off, the leather-bound notebook in hand. "Will!"

Will tossed her the book while he removed his lab coat, fingers fumbling to replace it with his uniform blazer.

"The page I have marked," he spoke while shifting the fabrics around, quickly adjusting his appearance, "it talks about the same little girl from before."

Kayla looked down to the book and opened up to the page that Will had previously read.

"It doesn't say much Will," Kayla pointed out as she skimmed the page, finding its contents almost nonexistent.

"I know," Will said, turning to face Kayla, pointing at her with his finger to emphasis his point. He started to move again, causing Kayla to sigh. "But the thing is, my grandpa had this one time he would never talk about when he was Senior Healer, and that was the one life he was unable to save during his time."

"And you think this has to do with Nico?"

"Yes," he exclaimed, already heading for the door with Kayla in suit. "He spoke of her dark aura, the way the darkness and shadows followed her as she laid, being consumed while nothing he did would work. These were the only details he wrote down, and if that doesn't sound like Nico's powers then I don't know what else would."

Kayla looked back down at the book, trying to find where this was in the text. Her eyes worked overtime as to keep up with Will and the reading, making sure she was walking in the right direction and not running into anyone.

"What happened?" she asked, looking up from the notes.

"That's the thing, that's all I know, gramps never talked about it. He would get dark-eyed and close up, not really talking much after that. He gave me this notebook for this year, telling me to learn from his mistakes."

"And what do you think he means by that?" Kayla asked, rushing to keep up with the blond's long strokes.

"If that means anything in this context, it is that I need to know what happened the night of April eleventh, nineteen-thirty-three," Will told her, keeping his focus ahead.

...

When Will got to Chiron's office, he took a deep breath with the notebook now back in his hands, Kayla standing off to the side, giving him a nod of encouragement. With one last smile to his housemate, he entered Chrion's office after hearing him to come in, pushing the large doors open.

"Will," Chiron said, raising his brows in surprise and delight as the blond's sudden appearance, "how may I help you?"

"Headmaster, I need to know what happened the night of April eleventh, nineteen-thirty-three." Chiron's face fell after hearing the date, a long sigh fell on him as he sat down in his chair, eyes glossing over.

Will stood tall as he kept his head high, not budging when Chiron's expression became guarded.

"Will," Chiron started, meeting the vibrant blue of the boy in front of him, "I don't know why this information would be needed or be useful."

"Look," Will started, taking a seat in the worn-down chair in front of Chiron's desk, "I feel that it would be beneficial for the infirmary to have exact details regarding what took place then."

"I don't even know where you got this information from."

"My grandfather's journal," Will told him, raising it in his hand to show the elder man that had grown more tired by the seconds passing. "He gave it to me for when I became Senior Healer, and I had been looking over it and I want to know why he wasn't able to save her, or what even did occurred then." Will flipped the book open, fingers shaking with anticipation as he found the page, placing it in front of Chiron as to show him what he meant. "Like, I only have the bare minimum when it comes to info, I just think that, as Senior Healer, I should be allowed to these past medical records. And I checked, we don't have ones that far back in our main office."

Chiron sighed, his face heavy with thought.

"Will, I know you mean well, but this is an event closed away for reasons that are beyond even you," Chiron explained.

"But Chiron, I think it would be better to have the reports because of the new student and his-"

"Solace," Chiron interrupted, voice stern as he spoke above the blond, "those records are out of your reach for a reason. I am glad you are interested in them, but please let it go. They are not crucial to your aid, so please find another way if you must. Now, if that's all you came for, please have a wonderful rest of your day."

As Will rose, his breath was shaky. His heart pounded in his chest as he reached for his notebook back, scared something was going to happen to him if he touched it. He had never been turned down from access to medical records before, that's why heading over to speak to Chiron was his first and only plan.

When he walked out, Kayla stood, her face hopeful. As Will shook his head, a deep breath leaving him, Kayla's face dropped. Her mouth formed a hard line as she followed him out and down the stairs, starting their journey back to the infirmary.

"What did he say anyways," Kayla asked, watching as Will continued to walk ahead, the journal being held with a tight grip.

"He said that the information wasn't necessary," Will told her, keeping his sight straight ahead.

"And what are we going to do now?" Kayla wondered, trying to think of what steps they could do next.

"We are going to find out on our own." Kayla looked up from the notebook in her hand and stared at Will, his hair bouncing with every step he took. Kayla didn't know what he meant, but what ever it was, she wasn't sure if she wanted to take part in it. She didn't know what they were getting into, but the result was more compelling than the crawl to achieve it.

...

After finding out that not only did he pass his magical history test, but he got an 80%, he found more pep in his will to pay attention. It may have taken the teacher a long while to get the scores back to them, but Nico was secretly thanking Will for all the help, where ever he was.

His teacher continued to explain the lesson, her soft, musical voice making the class less boring than if it had been taught by another teacher. He liked her, she talked about topics that were seen as taboo by others, explaining and answering the real questions the students had.

"So, by the eighteenth century, we have proof of the Wicca community in the new world," she explained, doodling a small drawing of a stereotypical witch, pointy hat and all.

As Nico continued to write his notes down, trying to keep up with her, his fingers started to burn, shaking. He furrowed his brows, mouth drawing into a hard line as the pain start to sting. He shook his hand out, trying to make the muscles relax.

After shaking his head, he picked his pen back up and started to copy down the words she was saying at a rapid pace to try and catch up. But as he continued, he fingers started to get cold, almost discoloured as time ticked on.

He tried to ignore it, focusing everything on the class, but that only lasted for a little bit.

...

The class was roughly half over when the pain came back, striking him suddenly. He dropped his pencil, his hands violently shaking.

"What the...?" Nico mumbled under his own breath, eyes hard as his brows came together in confusion.

He slowly turned his hand to face his palm to his eyes, examining the lines while it continued to shake. His skin clung to his bone structure, outlining every bone and joint.

Nico took a deep breath and tried to focus on the words that were coming out of his teachers mouth. But as time went on, things started to get hazy, her words sounding like they were slurring together like some one who was drunk. Nico tried to blink, try to clear his eyes and mind from what ever was going with them, but as time started to tell, things weren't getting better.

His breath got heavy, unsteady, but Nico was too out of it at the point to notice. Everything started to go black and white, colours paling as words started to all blur together until everything sounded like a loud buzz, a ringing that echoed arund in his head.

And what came next was more of a feeling than a memory.

Nico's eyes rolled back and closed, his pencil dropping from his hand once more and rolled off his desk. His body went slack as he fell out of his chair, hitting the ground with a hard _thud_. When everyone turned around to see what the noise was, a dead silence fell over everyone as everyone watched as Nico's body started to tremble, every muscle fighting one another,

"Nico!" Hazel screamed, the sound of a chair screeching on the hard tile as she stood up, rushing to his side. His body was cold and pale, almost lifeless, scaring her as she forced tears back, her hand hovering over his seizing body.

As he writhed in pain, Hazel screamed to a girl with red hair and a yellow and gold tie.

"Rachel, watch him!"

Frozen in place, she nods after a moment of shock. With shaky legs, she walked up to Nico and took a deep breath.

"Alright, Kyle, move the tables so he doesn't hurt himself," she started, trying to think of what to do while Hazel jumped up and ran out of the class and down the hall.

Her lungs stung as she ran through the hall, mind and heart racing as she tried to remember what class Will had. She knew she needed to get him, he would know what to do as Senior Healer, right?

It felt like years before she reached the Natural Department. But when Hazel saw the teacher's name plate on the door, she almost ripped the doorknob off of the door when she opened the it. All eyes were on her as she stood in the door way, her breath heavy as tears streamed down her face.

When Will saw her, his fist clenched, waiting for her to speak. His heart dropped when she locked eyes with him.

"Will," she managed to say while panting heavily, "it's Nico." Before she could finish what she was saying, Will already had stood up, a textbook balancing on the corner of his desk falling and hitting the ground with a _bang,_ ringing louder due to the silence that fell over the class.

Will ran past the of desks, running into the end of one of them as he rushed out of the class. When he left, nothing but the quiet _tick tick_ ticking of the clock rang through the room, no one dared to say anything. Everyone slowly stood up, no one saying a word as they rushed to get to the door to watch as Will ran faster than they had seen him move before, an upset Hazel struggling to keep up.

Hazel still had tears streaming down her face as she rushed right behind Will who's face was unable to be read no matter how hard she tried.

Will's legs burned with every step, but the adrenaline rushing through his veins made him numb to it. When he cracked the corner, the final stretch was agony. Watching the door slowly get closer burned every inch of him.

There were two people standing outside, watching and waiting, and when they saw Will, they poked their head inside, telling everyone that Hazel was back with Will. The closer Will got, the more his heart dropped. The sound of screaming echoed throughout the halls, bouncing from all angles. Other classes had their doors open, people trying to see what was going on.

When Will stood in the door frame, his breath was shaking and heavy. But it didn't end there. A single tear fell when he saw Nico laying on the ground, his body shaking in unnatural positions. His mouth was open as an ungodly scream came from his body. It took so much in him just to not leave the room and throw up, something the other students were probably thinking also.

Without missing a beat, Will dropped to his knees and brought his hand up to Nico's body, his hands glowing as he ran them over, hovering just above. His heart raced as he struggled to find what was wrong.

"Will." When a hand was placed on his shoulder and a voice soft and caring spoke to him, he snapped out of the mindset he found himself in. "You need to go get ready."

When Will turned around, Kayla and Austin already had their gloves on and their uniforms slung behind them, their sleeves rolled up and ready.

Will nodded, something calming passing over him as Kayla and Austin stepped forward, taking his spot on the floor.

...

Time. All he needed was more time.

When Will arrived at the infirmary, word had already spread. So, as Will entered, his breath heavy once more from sprinting the entire way over, the current residences had the main room ready, gloves and equipment already set up.

"Alright," Will announced, voice shaky but still firm, "as you already know, we have a severe case on the way. Everyone will do as they are told the moment they are told to do so. You will stay out of the way unless called on. No one disturbs me until I am done, you understand?"

As heads nodded, Will inhaled deeply, trying to calm his nerves. He was not ready for this. And he knew he never would be.

When Nico arrived, Will had his coat and gloves on, his hair tied up, and his crew behind him. He had no idea what he was going to face. His initial scan showed nothing, and he was scared. Will had never gone into something this big blind. If he was being honest, he had never done anything this big, period.

With shaky hands, he watched as Kayla, Austin, and Lee carried Nico in, his body still moving. His heart dropping again when he was laid out and strapped down so they could get him still.

And with one final breath, Will knew he was in for a long night, preparing for what ever was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did rush this chapter to get it finished, and because of that it suffered. I tried, I really did, please don't hate me!  
> Anyways, I'm really tired and I finally get off school. If i had been off this entire week like most people this would be so much better but my school runs us like rats and its awful so i know get time to breath.  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it, I think I'll go over this and add more things to this entire story later down the road, for now, I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know you thoughts, it really is the best thing to hear from you.  
> Kitty out!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It isn't a Christmas fic if I haven't stayed up to midnight Christmas Eve finishing a chapter!

The sound of heavy breathing echoed the entire room as people slowly flooded in, trying to see what the emergency was. Nico's vocal cords had been strained, resulting in a airy noise escaping from his lips, almost more haunting than the ear-splitting scream that originally came from his throat.

Will had a thick layer of sweat covering his brow as he stood, silent and ready, mind focused on healing whatever was wrong with Nico.

As people came in, the back of the room overflowed with people, Hazel and Octavian being among the several of those who stood silently, too scared or nervous to talk. When Will looked up and caught Octavian's eye, thoughts raced through, wondering why we was even there in the first place, and as if he had read his mind, Octavian looked down, a look akin to someone who had been proven right but didn't want to be showing all over his face.

Will ignored him, scanned the faces of the others. When he spotted Hazel, her face was stained with tears, people he knew, such as Jason Grace and his sister, Thalia, held her close, trying to console her, but she didn't look weak. Her posture was tall and strong, face solemn, the only sign of weakness was the tears streaming down her face, but she was strong.

Will's hands burned, he heat that came rushing back at him from his hands were beyond what he could have imagined. He had healed people before, obviously, but the amount of power and energy he put into this round was more than he could have ever recalled. He didn't know what was wrong with Nico, so he threw everything he could think of his way, hoping something would slow it down.

And it did. What ever Will was doing was slowing down whatever was happening. Nico's hands still shook, turning black at the tips, almost looking like he was about to lose them any minute, and while Will didn't want Nico to lose any fingers, he needed to concentrate on saving his life; his fingers wouldn't exactly be a problem his he wasn't alive to use them.

As Nico's body slowly got colder, showing signs of death, Will's heart pounded fast, tears threatening to fall. He didn't want to fail, he didn't want the same thing to happen to him that happened to his grandfather; he knew that he lost someone, and Will wasn't about to follow in his footsteps. This school is a safe place for their kind, and he would not allow for someone to die in the one place where they didn't have to fight for their lives.

Nico's heartbeat was fading fast, yet pounding harder than anything Will had ever seen, blood pressure sky rocketed, giving Will more anxiety.

With shaky hand, Will doesn't give up, but pushes on feeling a tug in the back of his mind telling him that he himself didn't have much time life either.

...

When Nico opened his eyes, he was shocked to find that he wasn't back in class. He thought he had fallen asleep, maybe pushed himself a little too far without realising it. But as he looked around, he was surrounded by black, outside noise muffled so he couldn't understand any of it. Yet silence rang throughout.

He walked around, seeming to find himself in a never ending loop of darkness. Nico was confused on where he was and why he was there; how he had _gotten_ there. He eyed every inch, turning rhythmically on his heal to spin, looking behind him with ease.

Nico felt calm, relaxed. Which was odd giving the circumstances. He felt like he had been here before, like this was an old friend he was waiting to see again, nothing about it felt cold.

As he stood, he took a deep breath, trying to think. He was in magical history class when all of the sudden he had gotten really tired. He was sure that he had fallen asleep, but he felt awake, like this couldn't have been a dream.

He was confused, but he went along with it, trying to come up with ideas onto why this would be happening, always coming back to the same conclusion that he had to have been vividly dreaming.

...

As Chiron entered the scene, all eyes fell on the Headmaster whom was out of breath from running the entire length of the school to make it down. His eyes showed his age, wrinkles framing his entire face, eyes heavy with sadness. When he looked upon Nico's body, appearing lifeless, yet obviously still alive, everything came crashing down.

No one was supposed to hurt like this again, no one was supposed to be born with this curse. The last girl to have lived like this had died in a very much the same way, yet she was younger, more scared. But watching Nico fight for his life and others trying to save him, he didn't see one or the other, he saw them both, the little girl and Nico both fighting for their life in the same spot, the same way, just decades apart.

"Will," Chiron spoke up, voice broken and low, "you are going to over exhaust yourself."

"No," Will shot back, almost not even hearing Chiron has he stood off to the side, not wanting to argue with the grieving blond trying his best to save his friend from sudden death. Will had stayed stayed strong, pushing everything back, but the moment the words left his mouth, broken and cracked, it hurt to hear. All his emotions were being exposed, but he couldn't let them control him, he needed to in and save Nico's life.

"Will," Kayla called out, her voice soft and quiet, she also fighting back emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

"No!" he shot again, a blast of hot air rippling over the hoard of people that watched as Will fought to get the upper hand. Nico's body was being consumed by darkness, shadows crawled up the sides of the table, darkening the room with every passing second. "I will _not_ let this end like this!"

Will pressed on, his muscles screaming from the intense stress and pressure they were under. It was more than he could handle, but he wasn't giving up on Nico, not like this. He wasn't about to throw everything out just because he was a little tired.

"Nico, I am not letting you die on me," he mumbled under his breath, aiming everything he got at the boy fighting for his life.

...

As Nico continued to look around, he was already quickly becoming bored. Yeah, the place might have been dark and brooding, yet relaxing, but that was the entire place. Nothing new came the longer he looked around.

With a sigh, Nico kicked his shoe to the ground.

"Look's like I have kept you waiting," came a low deep voice, malicious in its tone, yet comforting. It was like a rose, pretty but dangerous. When Nico turned around, he was faced with a man in dark robes, shades of deep greys.

"Who are you?" Nico asked, more out of curiosity than anything. When he faced this mysterious man, he didn't feel scared, yet felt a sort of comfort he only could recall as parental.

The man smiled, crooked teeth showing, yet it worked. He had a strong jaw line that was peppered in thick, black hairs that made up his scruffy beard, thick eyebrows and a head of hair to match.

"I'm surprised you don't recognize me, Nico," the man spoke, as minister grin stretching on his lips.

Nico took a sharp breath in, his chest tightening.

"Am - am I supposed to know?" he asked, his voice strained.

The man chuckled lowly.

"I suppose not." He took a few steps forward, the sound echoing. "Take a wild guess."

Nico looked him up and down, eyes examining the man.

"Well," Nico starting, going from foot to foot, balancing his weight between the two, "I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming, so you could be anyone."

"Nico," the man stated, "you are not dreaming."

Nico stared at him, hearing his heart pound in his chest.

"What do you mean I'm not dreaming?" Nick asked, taking a few steps back himself. "If I'm not dreaming, where am I?"

"I think you can answer that one." Nico swallowed hard. He took a deep breath as he looked around.

"Am I dead?" He asked wearily, hoping that he was wrong. The man laughed, a sinister noise escaping him.

"No," he stated, taking a short pause to look Nico over and land in his eyes, "not yet."

Nico swallowed again, taking a deep breath in as he let his mind run. What did he mean by, "not yet"? Was he dying, would he die later? These thoughts raced in his mind, bouncing as time ticked.

Nico turned to face behind himself, to where he had originally came from. As he looked back, he wondered. What was going to happen next?

"What do you mean 'not yet'?" Nico asked, turning back to face the man who hadn't moved the entire time.

"What do you think it means?" he asked, continuing to let Nico figure out what was going on.

"Am I dying?" Nico turned to face him, brows brought together as he tries to connect everything that had happened up until that point. The man smiled sadly, but the way it reflected was almost malicious.

"It seems that you are catching on quick," the man smiled, expression becoming laughter as Nico slowly fell into a state of denial

"That's impossible, I can't be dying!" Nico exclaimed, brows furrowed together even more.

"How would you know? You thought you were dreaming." Those words hit Nico like a tone of bricks. It felt like everything he had ever thought had come crashing down, as if nothing he knew was real.

"If I'm dying, would that make you death?" Nico asked, trying to get ahold on his thoughts. The man laughed, finding the thought of him being death funny.

"No," he told him him, but still smiling his sinister smile, "but Death is an old friend of mine."

Nico swallowed the hard lump in his throat, trying to not seem scared in front of the man that intimidated him.

"Are you Satan?" Nico asked, taking a step back. The man laughed, shaking his head as if that was the funniest thing he had ever heard.

"Some would say," he spoke with a smirk playing at his pale lips.

"Wait," Nico said while deep in thought, eyes snapping up to the man as a sudden realization dawned on him, "are you Hades?" The man only smiled.

"Finally," he mouthed, voice calming in a deadly way. "I knew you were a smart boy, Nico. There was a reason you are one of my favorites."

"Favorites?" Nico repeated, trying to make sense of the word as he rolled it along his tongue. "Hades," he started awkwardly, but the man in question simply nodded, "what do you mean by favourite?"

"Well," Hades started, his sinister smile appearing again, "you didn't exactly die like the rest." He paused for a moment before his expression turned sour, yet still smiling. "At least until now. You were quite the mystery to me, you know."

"What do you mean?" Nico continued to question everything the mad said.

"You lived much longer than the others, they usual were overcome with darkness years before you are currently. They would hardly ever live past ten, and those who did were quite weak, but you, you lived until your seventeenth birthday and beyond, _and_ you managed to be at such a level of power as you are - were, oops, sorry."

As Nico tried to wrap his head around all these things, Hades came up to his side, ushering him down the darkened path forward.

"Listen, Nico, I know everything might seem to have happened so quickly and that it isn't far, but you are miracle to other children of the underworld." Hades had his hands in front of him, using them as he explained to Nico in a kind voice what was happening. "I personally see to the leading of your kind because I feel personally responsible for you, almost like you are my children."

"But, why is all of this happening?" Nico asked, connecting things to where they belonged.

"It's because children of the underworld aren't meant to live in the world of the light. The only reason the shadows haven't claimed you guys until later on is because of the sun. If it wasn't for that, not only would you be the most powerful, but you would be able to walk on the surface. It's funny how the one thing that is keeping you alive is also the reason why you die so early, the shadows are trying to save you, seeing as you aren't meant for the bright daylight of the mortal world."

"Is that why I have a light sensitivity?" Hades nodded in agreement, to which Nico simply nodded back, still at a lose for real word.

"It only feels right if I guild you to the underworld, the place you are meant to roam." Hades bent down and grind, the ends of his lips turning upwards. "I make sure Death doesn't come, you know? Tell him I care so much about him that I'll take this one off of his hands. He gets so happy when I take death guidings from him." Nico chuckled lowly at Hades words, finally, for the first time, feeling like he belonged.

...

Shadows came from all angles of the room, trying to attach to Nico's body, trying to pull him down and under into the land with no light. His body still shook, but it was less violent and more from his organs shutting down, his heart struggling to keep up with everything.

Will's hands were burning, and the gloves weren't helping a single bit. It got to the point were he swore he was burning a hole in the palms of them. It wasn't until Kayla called out to him did he even notice.

"Will," she called out, the only person willing to speak. Even thought the room was silent, it still sounded like the loudest room in the entire school. When she got no response, she tried again, her voice more urgent. "Will, take off your gloves."

"Kayla," Austin mumbled, his dreadlocks that were tied back swing as he faced her, putting a hand on her shoulder as she refused to look anywhere other than the blond who was damaging his hands.

"Will, take off your gloves" she shouted at him right before walking up to him and ripping them off herself. When she did, a burst of energy bounced around the room from the excess buildup occurring in the gloves. Will himself was taken back by the sudden release of energy, a long breath escaping him as he was thrown back into reality.

"Thanks," he mumbled, to which Kayla only nodded her head and crossing her arms after she threw out the gloves that were starting to melt in the trash. Those gloves were created and meant to be used with large surges of magical energy such as what Will was doing, but she was getting concerned when she noticed the buildup, the overwhelming amount of energy that wasn't releasing.

Nico's status was slipping, his body starting to fail. Will's strength is starting to fail him, wasting too much of it before. His mind was getting fuzzy, his hands shaking. As his powers slowly started to slip, the others noticed this too.

"No," Will managed to choke out, his voice shaky from an overflowing amount of emotion, "you aren't allowed to die on me just yet." But Will knew he couldn't keep him alive much longer, he knew he was starting to repeat what had happened to his grandfather all of those years ago, he was going to lose his first patient, he was going to lose a friend.

When Kayla saw his struggle, saw her best friend slowly fall apart, she looked around and watched, trying to notice. The one thing she picked up from her quick observation was the fact that when ever Will's hands would move, the shadows that consumed him would move away, hiding in fear.

In a moment of blind faith, she rose her hand to the sky, head forward as everyone watched as she slowly illuminated her hand, letting the extra light shine. She stood strong as everyone watched her wearily. With his head held high, Austin raised his hand, facing his palm upwards like Kayla as he joined in and illuminated his hand also, driving the darkness back, delaying it.

The rest of the Apollo household followed suit, doing their best to help Will who was fighting harder than anyone had seen or could ever do. Others in the crowd helped.

At this point other people had joined, such as Hazel and Nico's other friends. Leo ignited his hand and raised it over the heads of the others, Jason and Thalia following as their hands sparked. Those who surrounded them joined together in helping the best the could. It wasn't much, but it was giving Nico more time then he had.

"Nico," Will mumbled, "please."

...

"It is your time, Nico," Hades told him, turning to face the boy who had followed him almost to the heel.

"Why? Why does it have to be my time?" Nico questioned him, trying to think of a way around this.

"Everyone has their time, and sadly yours comes sooner."

Nico wanted to run, to protest, to scream, but being here with Hades, he knew that it was too late for any of that, that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't go back. His fate was sealed, carved in stone.

"There has to be another way, I can't leave, not now."

"I always argued with Death for your life, for the children of the underworld, but he wouldn't budge. He told me that I couldn't let the souls go," he explained, placing a cold hand on Nico's shoulder, a hand which comforted him in a way that shouldn't have.

Voices echoed from behind him much like they had done before, words jumbled from the world of the living. Nico hadn't paid much attention to them, but as he stood there, trying to find a way to bargain his life with the god of the underworld, they seemed louder, like they were starting to scream at him to keep going.

"Nico," he started, "I am so grateful that you got to live the life you did before today, that you got to live a little more than the others, but it is now time to face what is meant for your future."

"I can't die, I'm sorry," Nico spoke off to him, stepping away from his hand that now rested at Hades side. The god didn't look hurt, only saddened.

" _Nico."_

Nico turned around, trying to find the source of the voice that suddenly spoke to him. He knew that voice, even thought it was distorted and muffled, he knew that voice.

Will.

Will was trying to talk to him. He must have been with him outside this world and in his own. Nico took a step back to where he had come from, to where Hades had packed him up from.

"Will," Nico muttered, feeling something overflow within him. He never thought he would be so happy to hear the blond's voice, low and melodic. In that moment, something hit him, something that felt like a truck had hit him smack down in the middle of his chest, sitting on his lungs and making it hard to breath.

"Hades," Nico managed to say, turning his head over his shoulder to face him, "I can't go with you."

"And why is that?" the god asked, trying to understand the young boy's state of mind in that moment.

"Because I have someone waiting for me," he said, slowly smiling to himself, "and I made a promise, and this is one I can't go back on."

...

Even with everyone's help, Nico's body was being dragged away, piece by piece, his mind and body slowly falling apart on that table with everyone around him, holding their breath. It wasn't Will's fault, he was doing everything he could to save the boy, but his body couldn't take it anymore.

Will knew this was draining him, he knew that, but he wasn't going to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. He wasn't going to let Nico fade into nothing, leaving him but a distant memory. But the harder he tried, the worse he felt. Will wanted to save him, but at that rate, he should have passed out five minutes ago.

He couldn't hold on for much longer, no matter how hard he tried, and he did try extremely hard. His mind was starting to go fuzzy as he pushed his powers far past the limit he should of.

Even with everyone's help, Will knew he couldn't keep it up. They had already bought Nico stolen time. He should have been dead five times over in the span in which they kept him going.

Will's final limit was soon, and no matter how hard he tried, he was going to reach it and be unable to save him.

Everyone watched, breath held in their throat, as Will continued to do what was beyond the best they had seen, if not the best this school had ever seen. If he knew it helped and healed, Will was using it along with ten other spells. Everything he had learn or read was being used in that moment, trying to dispel the shadows that continued to aggressively drag Nico's body and mind down with them.

Will's light was fading, his hands slowly lost their glow. Will knew that he was looking at Nico's living face for one of the last times, and was he saw him, not as a lifeless body about to pass on, but as his dear friend, the boy he loved most of all, he summoned everything he could find in him. If this was going to be the last time, he was going to say everything.

"Nico," he managed to choke out, voice coarse and broken, "you aren't allowed to leave me, you promised!"

Will didn't care that people were watching, that people would hear what was meant for the two of them, all he wanted was to say what he was thinking, what he truly felt inside.

"You aren't allowed to die on me! You are supposed to get hurt, Nico! You are supposed to ignore my nagging to get yourself healed before I chase you down to help you. You're supposed to tell me to fuck off, to stop bothering you, but smile up at me, to look away, and get flustered when I do anyways!

"You're supposed to make fun of Octavian with me! To tell me how much you hate him and how awful of a person he is! Nico, you're supposed to call him a rat and then laugh with me!"

Octavian put a hand to his chest, feeling hurt by the words of an almost dead guy.

"You're supposed to laugh at my bad jokes out of pity, to tell me how much of a loser I am even though you continued to stay by my side, to continue being my friend!"

As Will spoke, his hands started to glow brighter, his emotions fueling his remaining power. And as time continued, the more Will spoke aloud, the brighter his hands got. Power that no one knew where it came from surged through his hands, pulling Nico back from the brink of death, holding on to him for a few more seconds.

"Nico, you are supposed to tell me what I say is gay, how I act is strange and not natural, but then laugh at my attempts to cover! You're supposed to make fun of me, but still come back, but still be my friend! Nico, you're supposed to stay by my side and not die!"

Whatever Will was doing was working. The shadows stayed put for the time being, their path slowed down once again as Will did the unimaginable. Will had given Nico time he didn't have before, he gave him just enough time to try and save himself.

...

"Nico," Hades spoke, "you stand in a type of purgatory, but you must continue on with me."

Nico turned to face him, his head held high and his eyebrows furrowed.

"I can't go, I'm sorry."

"Nico," he started, understanding the pain Nico was in after hearing all this, "everyone has a time, and it is yours. Death does not listen to when you wish to go, it comes and it takes, having no mind for you."

"Tell Death that I'm not coming, I can't," Nico told him firmly, keeping his head high as he looked around the black void in which he and Hades stood.

"You are not the only one that wishes to have the events reversed, but your body is almost already gone. I have seen many children like you wish that they could have lived, that their life was not taken from them so early, but we all have an end." Hades made his way forward, stopping at what appeared to be a small door.

"You said I'm not actually dead, right?" Nico asked, looking back over his shoulder to face Hades.

"Correct," he told him, intrigued in what he was thinking.

"And that if this is purgatory, there is a way for me to head back, right, to the living world?"

Hades grinned, something inside of him proud.

"Correct," he spoke slowly, understanding what the boy was thinking, "but the risk is twice the amount of success."

Nico continued to look back to where he had come from, watching and listening for anything. When Will's voice started flooding through, clear as day, Nico felt his chest glow red hot, feeling life rage through him.

" _Nico, you're supposed to stay by my side and not die!"_

Nico ignored Hades as he tried to speak to him, to try and get through to him. Nico was willing to go, but the first time he heard Will's voice, he knew he couldn't, because there were people that would miss him. Hazel would miss him, Will would, his mother wouldn't know what happened to him, even Octavian would probably miss him.

Jason and Piper would, Leo would miss fixing his house. Frank, Annabeth, and Percy would miss him. Even his old friend Mathew, the friend that had forgotten about him, would never know what happened to him, whether he knew it or not.

And worse of all, Nico would miss these people. He would miss Hazel, and Octavian, his mother and friends. But worst of all, he would miss Will.

The blond had sneaked his way into his life, holding on and refusing to let go. He was not ready to admit it, but he would miss being around him, talking to him.

_"You know how I told you 'scared as a chicken'? Well, I feel like a chicken right now, Nico. I'm scared, but I'm willing to fight for you, to fight for you to return to me - to us!"_

"Hades," Nico spoke out loud after moments of silence, " _is_ there a way to go back?"

"Technically you would have to go through where you came from, but there's no telling you would make it back, making it to your body even more so. This path is a crack in reality for Death to pull your soul through, not for you to leave. The chances of you being stuck in this limbo are higher than you surviving."

"Did the others know this?" Nico asked.

There was a beat.

"Yes."

Nico let out a deep breath before turning to face Hades.

"I am willing to take that chance," Nico told him with a strong voice, his head held high.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Nico told him, nodding his head to clarify to himself what he meant, "there is something worth risking." Nico faced Will's voice, the words he spoke making everything seem okay.

"What should I tell Death?" Hades joked, his sinister smile showing through.

"Tell him that I escaped or that you took me, he shouldn't know, right? You are the one in charge of my soul." Hades grinned.

"You know, Nico," he started, "I knew I liked you for much more than just your talent. You truly are breaking every rule, and I don't think I should be proud, but I am."

Nico smiled, looking at Hades with a kind look, something that told him he was happy to have met him.

_"I may be a scared chicken, but I will keep fighting until the very end."_

"And so will I."

...

Death comes for us all.

That was something Will pushed out of his mind, his hands burning under their own power.

As Nico's body turned ice cold, everyone in the room stood there silent as Will continued to push on. He couldn't admit to himself that it was too late, that he wasn't able to save him.

"Will," Chiron spoke softly, but Will continued to ignore him. Chiron placed a gently hand on Will's shoulder, causing his to revolt at the touch, snapping him out of the trance that he had fallen into. "Will," he spoke softer this time as the blond looked up at him, his heart breaking in his eyes, "it's done."

Will looked down at the body in front of him. That's all it was now. Nico was gone, he wasn't able to save him.

Everyone in the room felt heavy, with Hazel being the first one to start openly weeping at the lost. Her cries echoed throughout the entire room and out the door to the people that had joined half way through. Kayla had her hand to her mouth, trying to hold in her pain as Austin held her tightly as tears stung his eyes.

A single tear rolled down Will's cheek, dropping and landing next to Nico's body as he reached out to touch his lifeless body.

He wasn't strong enough and failed him.

"I'm sorry," Will muttered, voice cracking as tears fell from his unblinking eyes. He took Nico's cold hand in his own, shaking as he reached out.

Will grabbed his hand as tears fell from his eyes, unstoppable and deadly. Will's hands were burnt, probably permanently damaged from that days events.

This was it, everything was over. Nico was gone.

All it took was just over a month for Nico to come into their lives and change them. All it took was just over a month for Nico to come into their lives and change them and then leave, leaving them emotionally damaged.

All it took was just over a month.

Fifteen seconds.

Fifteen seconds was all that past until the unthinkable occurred. Nico, who laid lifelessly on the table, his life stolen out from under him, grasped for air, his chest jolting upwards at the need for air. His eyes shot open, scaring everyone that watched.

A single beat passed before a whirlwind blast left Nico's body, expelling the darkness from his body and back to the shadows where it belonged.

"Nico!" Hazel screamed, her breath caught in her throat as she watched one of her best friends come back from the dead.

As Nico's body gasped for air, his head turned to face the blond, his hand dropping at the sudden realization. Nico's eyes fluttered, hurting from the light as he smiling softly, looking almost like he had been drugged.

"Will," he mumbled breathlessly, "I stayed alive for you." His words were almost inaudible, fighting to reach Will's ears as he reached out, hand shaky for Will.

Will took his hand before Nico's eyes closed, his chest slowing down and body fighting back whatever darkness was still present. As more shaking came from Nico, Will knew that he was going to be alright. He dried his tears and ignored the burning in his hand as he continued, pushing his limit even more than it already was once more, knowing that he hadn't failed, not this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise your hand if you still haven't written the final chapter that's due tomorrow! *raises hand*  
> Anyways, thank you all so much for all the love and support, I really only write his for those who follow me but new comers are always welcome! If you love my gay sons, then you are always welcome!  
> My mom had already yelled at me a totally of six times for trying to finish these chapters on time.  
> Anyways, thank you for all the love and support, it means the world to me! Please let me know your thoughts, it is literally the highlight of my day when I read your thoughts on these chapters!  
> Kitty out!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fucking hell, why do I continue to do these, I already know how hard they are, anyways final chapter yay

How does one come back to life from death and _still_ managed to worry about words he hadn't spoken directly to the person they were meant for? Well, for starters, you could be Nico.

As he laid on a medical bed, this time one without straps holding him in and a comfy pillow, all he could think of was the words he had spoke in purgatory to Hades as he defied all logic and reality to come back to life. He had told Hades things in that moment that even he wasn't aware of. Why was he so dedicated to bypass death and see Will again?

These were questions that flooded his mind while he laid, Hazel off to his side.

When he had first woken up, she had been passed out, her head leaning on his bed with her arms under her for a makeshift pillow. She had looked exhausted, like that had been the first time she had closed her eyes in a week.

As Nico came to, he looked around, eyes blurring and throat raw, his voice sounding like gravel. Frank, Hazel's boyfriend, had been entering the room at the same time, eyes wide with shock. He smiled nervously before muttering that he would go get someone.

Nico wasn't so sure on what had happened that night, seeing as he passed out shortly after once again, but Will was the healer on call for him, the blond quickly running into the room with his hair up and bandages wrapped around his hands. Nico didn't question it at the time, something that he didn't exactly notice coming out of a small coma, but the blond had smiled brighter than he had ever seen him before.

Will's face had fell, but not from sadness, but as if someone had lifted an entire brick building from off of his back. His eyes were watery, his breath deep and steady as he tried to flatten his hair. His expression was nothing but kindness and relief, seeing Nico awake for the first time in days was one of the best feelings.

"You're awake," Will had muttered as he walked up to Nico's bed, the bags under his eyes more prominent as he got close.

Nico tried to reply, but his throat still hurt, too much for him to talk at that moment. When he tried to open his mouth, Will shook his head, trying to keep his joy contained.

"Don't talk," he told him in a hushed whisper, looking over at Hazel who was too far gone in a dream to wake up. "She's been with you the entire time."

Nico looked over at Hazel whose hair was sticking to the side of her face and getting into her mouth.

"I don't want to wake her," he said, gingerly sitting in the chair beside Nico's bed.

As he looked around, he noticed that it wasn't his first time in that bed, he had come here the first time when he passed out during class, this is where they met. Nico didn't have a voice to say it, but he didn't want to bring it up, how could he say that without sounding weird?

Will let out a huge sigh, worry melting off of him to show how tired he was.

"You've been in a coma for almost two weeks," Will stated, looking at Nico in the softest way he could muster even on top of his exhaustion. Will smiled and chuckled softly, his nervous showing through. "I've been here this entire time, waiting for you to wake up. I don't know what I would have done if I was home and sleep when you woke up. Good thing, too, it's three in the morning."

Nico wanted to yell at the blond to go home and rest, to leave to take care of him, that he would be there in the morning, but his voice wouldn't let him and his words wouldn't carry. Nico wan't sure if it was all due to that or the fact that he wanted the blond to stay, to stay in that chair and never leave his side.

With shaky hands and his eyes drooping, he reached out for Will's hand and took it in his own just before passing out, just before trying to tell him to go to sleep. But to Will, he was left with his hand in a loose hold, wrapped in bandages as a wave of exhaustion rushed over him, screaming at him to go to sleep.

...

When Nico awoke the morning after coming to, Hazel was gone and his hand was stiff. He went to flex it, to pop and stretch the muscles, his eyes still closed, he became suddenly aware of heat coming from a source that wasn't his, another hand fitting perfectly into his.

He sat up suddenly, his head pounding along with every muscle in his body at the sudden movement. He retrieved his hand frantically, holding it close to his chest, cradling it in his own hand. His chest pounded as he breathed heavily, eyes wide yet stinging at the sudden increase of light from having them shut for almost two weeks.

Will still stayed asleep, his hair falling in all directions as he leaned over the bed, soft sounds coming from his dry parted lips.

"I'm glad you're awake," Hazel spoke up, surprising Nico who was still adjusting to being awake. She smiled, a glean in her eye as she glanced quickly over to Will. She smirked when Nico's face dropped, remembering that she had fallen asleep next to him so she must have woken up to the two of them holding hands and leaning in to.

"Hazel," Nico croaked, forgetting that his throat was still raw. He coughed, startling Will as he began to stir. Hazel smiled as she quickened her pace, shaking her head as she tried to keep the sound of her laughter in as she rushed to his side, grabbing a glass of water.

Nico downed the water at a breakneck pace, coughing after finishing the entire glass. Hazel took the glass back, setting it onto he table at his bedside, smiling as Will rubbed his eyes. She looked at Nico who was unaware of the blond who was blinking himself awake. She wiggled her eyebrows hoping Nico would get the sign, but he just furrowed his brows in response.

When Will yawned, stretching his arms above his head, Nico shivered, the colour draining from his face.

"Hazel?" Will mumbled, wiping the haze out of his eyes. Hazel smiled, waving as she brought her head down a little to speak to Nico, but allowing Will to hear.

"I'll give you two some time alone," she spoke, her voice melodic as she tried to hide what she really meant. Nico tried to yell at her, but simply mouthed threats so Will wouldn't hear his attempt at speech.

"Alright," Will yawned, sitting up as he continued to blink tiredly. After a moment of silence between them, Nico looked over at Will who was still trying to fully wake up. He smiled genuinely, his eyes soft. "I'm glad that you're awake, Nico."

Nico smiled, looking away trying to come up with excuses on to why he had reached out for his hand half way through the night.

"You said," Nico tried to say, coughing at the gravel in his throat, "you said I was out for two weeks?"

Will smiled at Nico's attempt to speak, finding the unnatural sounds cute.

"Yeah," Will spoke, his voice dark, still thick with sleep. Nico would never admit it out loud, but the way Will spoke first thing did something to him, making him nervous and excited all at the same time. "I was starting to get really worried."

Will rubbed his palms with the pads of his fingers, mind deep in thought as the bandages moved at the touch.

"What happened?" Nico asked, voice rough, brows furrowed as he unconsciously reached out to grab Will's hand, turning it over to view the damaged.

Will's cheeks went red.

"Oh," Will mumbled, trying to look away from Nico's view which was glued on his hand. "Just burned my hand awhile ago."

Nico looked up at him, confused. When Will looked back at Nico, the two of them shared a beat before Nico realized that he was still holding Will's hand. He released Will's hand, ears becoming hot.

"Sorry," he mumbled, bringing his hands back to his lap.

"It's all good," Will told him with a smile. Will folding his hand into a fist, frowning at the small amount of pain that shot up his arm.

"Did I do this?" Nico asked, fighting with his voice to let him speak.

Will shook his head, not telling him that it was because of his efforts in trying to save him.

"Nah," Will said softly with a smile, "things got heated the other day with a patient, and it got out of hand, that's all. None of this had anything to do with you."

Nico frowned as Will continued to speak about a made up event. Nico knew something wasn't right. Whenever Will would look at him, he would stroke his bandages, a distant look finding its way into his eyes.

Only moment later Kayla walked in, surprised that both Will and Nico were up and about.

"Oh, hey you two," she spoke with an air, snorting ever so slightly at the sight of Nico being awake. "I was just coming to see if you were in here, Will, and it seems like you are. Anyways, Austin is looking for you, something about a Turkish bird?"

"What?" Will wondered out loud, brows coming together in confusion as he thought about what that might have meant.

"I don't know," she said with a shrug, "just go and see him, I guess. Anyways, I'll do a scan for you if you wouldn't mind?"

Will smiled sadly.

"Sure," he told her, standing up with a fake pep in his step, his hands shaking as he supported his weight with his hand as he got up. "I'll be right back." With a fake smile, he left, moving the curtain that separated Nico from the rest of the world.

"Hey, Nico," Kayla said with a smile, examining him up and down with her eyes. "How's your throat doing?"

"Alright," he croaked, his lips turning upwards ever so slightly to give her an attempt at a smile.

"Sounds rough," she told him, her hands hovering up over his body. As she moved to examine, something felt odd. From her hands came the same heat that Nico felt with Will, but her's was different, almost more controlled. He always felt like Will had several things on his mind whenever he went over him, but Kayla had a pinpointed-like control over hers.

"What happened to Will's hands?" Nico asked, coughing at the use of his throat. Kayla stalled for a moment before continuing, doing her best to not let her face drop.

"Nothing important-"

"Was it because of me?"

Kayla looked up to meet Nico's eyes, the urgency reflecting in them. She sighed, dropping her hands.

"Nico," she started, taking a deep breath in, "I know Will will say that it was nothing, and I know that's what he wants us to say, but I can't lie to you. Yes, it happened half way through that... event. He used too much and energy had no where to go, so it burned him. He doesn't want to use his powers because of it, so I'll be doing these tests."

Nico nodded, understanding where Will was coming from. Will was a doctor, he was strong, and to admit that he hurt himself and is unable to heal from it, it must have hurt much more than he was willing to admit.

"Kayla," Will called, even more confused as he poked his head in, "Austin wasn't looking for me."

"He wasn't?" she asked innocently, raising her brows sarcastically at Nico, turning genuine when she faced Will. "Well, that's weird."

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes.

Kayla got up to leave with a small smirk on her lips, winking to Nico as she left the room, leaving the blond and him alone.

Nico only laughed when asked what she wanted.

...

Days continued like this; Will would come in to check on Nico, trying to make him laugh and forget about the literal hell he had gone through before Kayla would come in and do the actual work. Nico was getting worried about Will's hands, seeing as each day he would come in with different wrappings.

Will would continued to make his weird, stupid jokes, to which Nico would laugh at. It was a strange ritual, but it kept Nico sane when Hazel was there to keep him company. Hazel's other friends would stop by to make sure he was alright, always bringing him something to do so he wouldn't get totally bored while Will lectured him on why he couldn't leave.

As Will would talk to him, something to Nico never truly felt right. When he asked Hazel what was going on, she simply rolled her eyes at him, telling him that he needed to think a little more and stop being so dense.

But it was normal and this was how they lived for those days Nico found himself prisoner in that infirmary.

"But Hazel," Nico said to her when she came to visit him after her final class, an apple in her hand as she bit into it, rolling her eyes at her dimwitted friend, "I don't know how to describe it, it just feels... weird. Like - like everything is jelly."

"You really are dumb, aren't you?"

"Hazel!" Nico exclaimed, his nerves increasing as he tried to keep his voice down low, looking around to make sure Will wasn't around, "I'm serious! I don't want this!"

"No one wants feelings," she said, sighing as she rolled her eyes, taking another bite of the apple before throwing it in the trash.

"Feelings? Hazel, you must be crazy."

"Am I Nico?" she asked, getting serious with her friend. "Am I really? You don't think it's weird that you literally told - what? - the god of the freaking underworld that you weren't going to die because you had someone waiting for you and you don't think it's because you like him?"

Nico stared at her like she four heads, each on a different colour and speaking different languages, all at the same time. He flopped down on his pillow, a low whine escaping his throat that had healed more, but still left a gravel in his speech.

"Hazel!"

"Nico!"

The two of them stared the other down before Nico looked away and sighed.

"I guess you're right," he admitted, not wanting to, but finally allowing himself to admit to what he had known all along. "But there's no way he'd like me back."

And to that, Hazel grunted loudly, exasperated by these two males.

...

"Kayla," Will moaned, dragging his arms as he followed her around her space before she snapped, turning back to face her blond housemate with annoyed rage.

"What?" she exclaimed, trying to keep her voice low. "What could you possible want?!"

Will put his hands up in defense.

"I just wanted to talk to you," he said, his voice small as he picked at the bandages wrapping his hand.

Kayla sighed before sitting down, gesturing to the other chair for Will to follow suit. He smiled softly as he sat down, Kayla swatting at his hands every time he picked the wrapping.

"Stop that," she said, annoyed.

"Sorry," Will muttered, looking away in embarrassment. He straightened his back, inhaling deeply before he looked her in the eye. "I just need someone to vent to."

"Go ahead," she said, gently smiling at him as he smiled back, relaxing for the first time in a long time.

"It's just, you spend a lot of time with Nico, especially lately when you examine him, I just," he thought about his words as he sighed, "I just don't get to be on that level with him like I was before because of this." Will motioned with his hands, showing her how distraught he was about it. "I just try a lot, you know, but how do I make him see that what I'm saying is the truth and not some joke like he thought before?"

"What do you mean?" Kayla asked, leaning in as she was becoming intrigued.

"It's just that I want Nico to see me less as his doctor - his friend - and more of a, you know."

"Yeah," Kayla agreed, sighing as she thought about it. It was true that Kayla and Nico had gotten closer on a intellectual and spiritual level, but it was still nothing compared to where Will had gotten in these two months. "But I wouldn't worry about it."

"Worry? How could I not?! Kayla," he exclaimed, emphasizing his point with urgency, "I don't want a repeat of last time."

"And you wont, Will, you just need to believe in yourself for once and you'll be fine, trust me."

"Yeah," Will mumbled, looking at the ground as he thought things over, "just, right now I just want to try and ask him to the dance again, you know? That's coming up, but he already rejected me before, whether he knows it or not."

"Just go for it, what's the worst he could say? No?"

"He could just say yes to pity me," Will brought up, facing Kayla in the eye as she nodded, understanding where her friend was coming from.

"Will," Kayla spoke up after a moment of shared silence between them, "you need to believe in yourself for once. Look at you!" Kayla flailed her hands up and down while she pointed to all of Will. "You are amazing, smart, funny, fucking hell, Will, you are God damn handsome, literally anyone with a pair of working eyes could point that last one out!"

Will grinned as he stood up, waiting as Kayla followed, placing a gently hand in his shoulder.

"Look, I believe in you, Will, you just need to believe in yourself for once."

"Thanks Kayla," he said softly, smiling as he headed to the curtain to take his leave. "I own you one."

Kayla smiled and waved as she took her spot back at her desk, picking her pencil up and starting to continued what she was doing previously.

Will pushed the curtain out of the way and almost screamed when he ran into Hazel, quite literally.

"Hazel," Will exclaimed, hiding his fear behind laughter as he placed a hand over his chest, "you scared me half to death. What can I do for you?"

"Well," she started, looking around as if she was in thought, appearing innocent, "at first I was going to come and find you because Nico got hungry, again. But then I overheard something much more important than Nico's simple hunger needs."

When Will heard her, his entire face blew up red hot, feeling like he wanted to curl up in a ball and die.

"Oh my god," he muttered, feeling like he was going to throw up, "I can't believe you heard that. Please don't tell anyone or say anything!" Will continued to plead with her, but she simply laughed and smiled, grinning the entire time Will looked pained.

"Really? You think I would hear this and just leave it?" Will looked like he was about to fall over and die, tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes.

"Hazel," he spoke, voice cracking and broken.

"Look," she said, raising her hand to silence him, "I am not here to hurt you, if anything, I come as your guardian angel, here to help you and bare good news."

"What do you mean?" Will asked with urgency, his chest pounding as he struggled to breath, everything growing uncomfortable from the heat that took over his ears.

"I know for a fact that you should just man up and do it. I know Nico well enough to say that even if he does turn you down, and is aware of it, he would never do anything to hurt or humiliate you, and who knows, maybe something good will come from it."

Will looked like a kicked puppy, one that still was willing to go back, even if it meant being kicked again.

"Hazel," he said, his voice still cracking, "has anyone ever told you how amazing you are?"

She smiled, shrugging.

"Time to time."

...

Nico had died the entire time he was in the infirmary from boredom, even with everyone's help, but it was finally time for him to leave. Kayla had cleared him, even after all of Will's "expertise" in saying that he needed to stay just a little bit longer. But Nico was having none of that. He wanted to get out and get back to class.

His teachers had all come to see him, telling him not to worry on the work that he missed, but on aiming to get better and they would work with him when he came back.

Nico was more than ready to sleep in his own bed, to not have to sleep with five lamps on at all time to make sure the shadows had left him completely.

As he packed the few things Hazel had brought him, Will had awkwardly entered his room, coughing to make his presence known. Nico smiled when he turned around and spotted him.

"Will," Nico called out with a gently tone, relaxing at the sight of the blond.

"How are you feeling? You're voice is sounding better," Will pointed out, slowly making his way into the room and beside Nico who turned back to face his bed to pack.

"Yeah," he said with a smile, "and you got your bandages off, I see." Will fiddled with his bare hands, smiling shyly as Nico turned around and reached for them, trailing his hands along the burn lines that were finally healing. Nico had noticed that he had started to get a lot more touchy, always looking for an excuse to be near or touch Will in some way. Ever since Hazel had made everything clear, he was doing his best to try and hold back.

At first everything seemed awkward, like his hand would hover just near Will, fighting with himself to try and make contact, but recently, he had felt comfortable in his feelings to act a bit on them, allowing himself to hold contact that normally would have bothered him before.

Will on the other hand was having the opposite problem. He was so used to touching Nico that when he Nico started to engage in contact, it was a huge shock for him, everything suddenly happening way too fast for him.

So, Will stood there nervously trying to calm his already frantic heart as Nico continued to finger his burnt palm, intrigued in the patterns of the soon-to-be scars.

"Oh, yeah," he mumbled, trying to look away from Nico's glance as he centered himself, trying to find a calming factor.

"Anyways," Nico muttered, dropping Will's hand after realizing how awkward that had gotten, "I'm just glad to be getting out of here. No offence, but it's a bore here, and I don't exactly want to be in the place where I technically died for a while."

"I understand," Will spoke gently as he laughed in nervousness, trying to find the right moment to talk to Nico about what he came here for. "So, anyways, the reason why I am here."

"Will, do you think you could pass me that book on the counter?" Nico interrupted him, trying to shove everything into his backpack.

"Sure," Will spoke up, trying to calm his frantic heart. Will walked over to the bedside table and picked a purple well-used book up, running his hands over the cover as he took a deep breath in, mentally counting to three before turning to face Nico again. "As I was saying, you know how before..."

"Thank's Will," Nico interrupted him again, Will mentally slapping himself crossed the face as he watched Nico finished packing, zipping up the zipper and getting ready to leave.

"Yes, anyways," Will tried again, taking a shaky breath as he finally faced Nico, the younger boy looking him directly in the eyes as he waited for him to speak.

"Will!" Kayla called out, entering the enclosed area as she walked by. "There you are. I need you to write up a report."

"Alright," Will said in a rush, turning back to face Nico who simply watched the two of them go back and forth. "I'll do it later, promise, I'm just in the middle of-"

"Well, Mr. Willis said he needs it by noon, so if you think you could-"

"Kayla," Will interrupted her, his patients running thin as she continued to talk, unaware of what she had walked in on, "I said I'll do it soon. Just give me-"

"I'm leaving, Will," Nico told him as he walked passed him, waving by to Kayla who continued to be unaware.

"Bye," she waved, smiling, "anyways, as I was saying-"

"Kayla, I said I will do it later, just let me by!" Will snapped at her, rushing by and catch up to Nico who was already half way to the door. He pushed by people who were in his way, curing under his breath as tried to catch up to the smaller male. "Nico, wait!" he called out, reaching out to grab onto Nico's wrist, just managing to reach him.

Nico turned around, confused as he faced the blond while people paid no attention to them.

"Yeah?" Nico asked, confused. He turned around to face Will better, adjusting his backpack to fit on his shoulder better, Will still holding onto his wrist like his life depended on it.

"Nico," Will started again, breathless as he hoped that no one was going to interrupt him again, "you know, so the dance is coming up, right? And while we are friends, I was wondering if maybe, you know, by chance, if you weren't already bust that night, because knowing you, you probably already have a thousand things to do-"

"Will!" Nico exclaimed, smiling like an idiot the entire time Will spoke, watching the blond's cheek rather colour as time ticked on.

"Right," Will said lowly, dipping his head in embarrassment. "What I meant was, if you still have nothing to do that night, that maybe, if you wanted to, even just as friends, you know! That if maybe you wanted to - you don't have to, you know - possible want to go with me to that thing-"

"Will!" Nico said again, chuckling softly, but just enjoying Will's attempt at speaking. "Yes." Nico nodded, smiling widely as the blond's eyes grew twice in size, his breathing increasing rapidly.

"Wait, really? Wait, you don't even know what I was going to say! I was going to see if you wanted to, you know-"

"Will," Nico stopped him again, placing both hands on his wrist, "I already said yes, so calm down."

"Wait, like, actually?!" Will asked again, just to clarify if what he was hearing was actually true.

Nico nodded, smiling ear to ear. "Yes, idiot, now get back to work before you get yelled at by Kayla or Austin or someone else!"

Will nodded as he backed up, smiling like a fool as he tried to not run into anyone. Nico chuckled softly to himself as he watch the blond run into a table and two separate people in his attempt. He shook his head walked out, gripping his backpack tight as he grinned the whole way home.

...

As Nico laid at home, he found that his house was not much different than the infirmary room. They still wanted him to take it easy, to take at least two more days off before heading back to class, so while he laid in bed, his mind raced.

He still can't believe that Will had actually ask him to the dance. What kind of world was he living in where things actually worked out for him.

If even four weeks ago someone had told Nico that he would be going to a dance with a Will, a guy no less, he would have laughed in your face, told you that you were stupid and had no idea that you were saying. But here he was, giddy at just the thought of being around Will.

Hazel had stopped by to drop off Nico's homework from his classes, Will tagging along, saying he needed to check up on him, but he wasn't fooling Hazel who had already found out about Will asking him. So, when Will had asked to tag along, she kept her mouth shut and rolled her eyes at him, simply allowed him to come.

"You know," he had told her on their way over, "if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have found the final boost of confidence to actually go through with it." He paused before turning to face her. "Thank you."

Hazel simply smiled in reply, nodding her head as they reached the house.

"Got your homework, idiot!" she called out, rolling her eyes when a low growl came from the second floor. She climbed the stares and sighed when she saw Nico just laying there.

"Did you bring me food?" he asked, coughing as he took a small sip of water out of his cup.

"No," she told him, "but I brought you suffering and an annoying doctor."

Nico sat up when Will poked his head through, Nico unconscionably tried to fix his hair.

"Hey," Will waved with a smile, entering his room gingerly as Hazel dumped the books onto a coffee table by his bed.

"Hey," Nico replied, smiling nervously. Will pulled up an old chair that had been there long before Nico, and sat on it, hoping that it would hold his weight.

"Nothing too fancy, now," Will joked, grinning as he ran his hand over Nico's chest, hovering just above. When his hand glowed, Will winced in pain, Nico knowing that it still hurt him a tiny bit to use magic, but he still continued on to use it. "Looks like you're good," he told him, nodding his head as he brought his hands back to his lap, waiting for Hazel to get done.

"Will," Nico spoke up as Hazel hummed, lining everything up so it made sense, "I know I was the reason your hands are like that, and I know that they still hurt when you use them. You have to be more careful, Will. Stop trying to help me any more than you already have. I already owe you my life."

Will was taken back, at a lose of words as Nico continued to speak. He knew that he wasn't going to get everything passed him, but he was damn well hoping for it.

"Nico, it wasn't your fault, I was the one that was being reckless," Will tried to speak up, but Nico shot him down.

"Will, stop. Just promise me that you wont use them until they are healed, okay?"

"But-"

"Okay?" Nico reiterated, raising a brow at the blond.

"Promise, okay?"

"Good."

"Now, if you two are done over there, I have set all you're homework out along side the notes that I received from each of your teachers," Hazel piped up with a bored sigh, eyeing the two of them as they both blushed.

"Alright," Nico told her, his lip pulling upwards. "Thanks again, Hazel, you are really a life saver." Will huffed at Nico's words to which Nico simply rolled his eyes to, trying to hold in a bout a laughter.

"It was no problem, just promise me you'll study when we leave," Hazel said, tilting her head and leaning on her hip.

Nico nodded and smiled. "What else would I do?"

"Good point," she grinning, waving Will over. Will said goodbye quietly, backing away from Nico's bed as he followed Hazel out. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye," Nico waved, tiredly watching as they left.

"Bye," Will waved goodbye last, flashing Nico one last brilliant smile before they headed down the stairs and out of the door leaving the house behind them.

And when they left, Nico did listen to Hazel. He did get up and work on his homework, well, after a nap of course.

...

As Nico sat with Hazel and Piper as they ate their lunch, the others arguing over useless things, Piper started to talk about the dress her housemates had picked out for her when they went out on allowed shopping.

"You should see it," she said, pointing at Nico with her fork to prove her point, "when Drew walked up to me with it, I thought it was going to be hideous, by my God, it is the most beautiful gown I have ever seen. Drew might be a stone-cold bitch, but give her an hour and she will make you look like an entirely different person."

"I imagine," Hazel said, her voice dragging along as they talked.

As the conversation continued on, the topic of the dance being the main focus, something hit Nico like a tone of bricks.

"Wait," he said, to which Piper and Hazel looked over at him, "I don't have anything to even wear to the dance." He turned to face them both, his eyes saddened. "I can't go in skinny jeans and an oversize shirt."

Both Hazel and Piper looked at one another before sharing a similar look in their eyes, something malicious glimmering.

"Don't you worry a single bit," Piper told him, reaching over with a devious grin on her lips.

"We have this covered," Hazel piped in, nodding at Piper's words.

Nico wasn't sure if he should be scare, or even if he could trust them, but what choice did he even have? He was already out of time anyways. So Nico simply nodded, allowing them to do what they needed to do to help him.

...

The days went by, and if there was one thing that Nico learned, it was that death made people nicer to you.

People in his class would smile at him, greet him in the morning. It was the strangest thing to Nico, yet here it was.

And it wasn't just students, but the teachers also. Everyone had treated him better, treated him like he was human, and not like some monster that was going to kill everyone at a drop of a hat.

It was weird to experience, but it made things so much better.

...

When the night of the dance had rolled around, classes were let out early, teachers knowing that this was one of the only nights that the students would get to feel normal for once.

Hazel had told Nico that they would all be meeting in the dorms to get ready, something the school allowed the students to do to avoid walking the ways from their houses.

When four had rolled around, Nico was sauntering over to the room the girls had told him to be in, people in dresses and makeup half complete ran up and down the halls, pushing past him inn a hurry. The dance may be starting at seven, but these girls were not taking any chances.

When Nico reached the room, the girls pulled him in, slamming the door shut.

Annabeth stood off in the corner going over homework while a girl he was introduced to as Reyna did her hair effortlessly. Hazel was over by the closet going through the collection of dresses that were hung up, double checking to make sure everyone was ready. Piper had pulled him in, muttering something about how long each thing would take, trying to do the math to make sure everyone was on time.

Nico flashed a small smile to a girl he knew as Rachel from his magical history class. She was straightening her hair in the mirror, fighting with her mess of a natural hairstyle, or at least that's how she put it.

"Everyone," Piper shouted, getting everyone's attention, "this is Nico, for those of you who don't know." Everyone smiled and waved, rushing around the room to get everything ready.

Nico was intrigued by how fast every girl worked, each one managing to move like machines to get everything done in time without running into one another.

When five-thirty rolled around, almost everyone was ready, only two girls weren't in their dresses. As Nico sat on the bed, kicking his feet up as they worked, he was the only one with anything done. So, when Reyna pointed out that he was still untouched, the entire room looked up at him then at one another, making a silent plan to get him done.

"What are we going to do?" Piper muttered to the girls who now stood in a line in front of him, each one of them having their arms crossed.

"I don't know," Rachel spoke back, keeping her eyes locked on Nico as they debated, going back and forth.

"Plan time," Annabeth spoke up, "Piper, you tackle makeup, Reyna and Rachel, you cover hair. Hazel and I will do outfitting. Go."

Everyone split up, heading in different angles before Nico was pulled into the center of the room and placed in a chair. He sat there as he was attacked at different angles, Piper dabbing things he didn't even know the name of on his face while Reyna and Rachel worked as one person to put his hair in specific spots.

When they were done, seamlessly Nico was passed off to Hazel and Annabeth where they stripped him down and build him up again in a well-tailored suit. When he looked in the mirror, Nico almost didn't even recognize himself.

"Holy shit," he muttered as he looked himself over in the mirror.

"I do say we did do wonderful," Rachel spoke up, leaning into Reyna's side as she played with the gingers hair.

"Well, it's time for us to go meet the boys downstairs," Annabeth pointed out to which everyone nodded, fixing themselves one last time in the mirror before the opened the door and watched as everyone from the other dorms started rushing out.

"Nico," Hazel spoke as they walked, "let us lead the way, why don't you?"

Nico nodded, having no objections to this, so he followed the small crowd of girls down the hall, his heart racing in his chest he as he tried his best to breath, palms sweaty.

...

The boys had agreed to meet up only half an hour before hand, none of them really fussing over their appearances, other than Percy who was a nervous wreck for some reason.

"Dude," he started, "I don't think I can do this." He started to fiddle with his ocean blue tie going from one foot to the other.

"Percy, you've literally taken Annabeth to this dance, like, five times before, stop being stupid," Jason yelled at him, crossing his arms as other couples walked past them and into the main hall.

"Hey, shit faces," Thalia called out to the group as her friends followed her, "I see you all are waiting out here like a bunch of idiots."

"I see you have your lesbian pack with you, also," Jason shot back, to which Thalia only rolled her eyes.

"Still can get more lady than you," she added, smirking as everyone laughed at Jason who simply rolled his eyes.

"Why do you even try and fight your sister, Jay?" Will asked, raising a brow to the other blond.

"Listen here, Solace," Jason started, but found a loss of words so he simple stopped, everyone snickering at him.

"Anyways," Frank said, arms crossed, "they should be here any minute."

As Frank said that, the girl's cracked the corner, Annabeth in her ocean-blue dress being the first one to walk down the stairs, Reyna and Rachel, arm in arm, were the next two, waving to Thalia as they reached the bottom. When Piper made her way, Jason shed a single tear, to which Leo elbowed him after making a comment.

Frank walked up to the stairs when Hazel came down, each girl taking their turn. He greeted his girlfriend with a kiss to the hand, telling her that her deep lavender dress was stunning on her.

Will waited, hands in his pocket, as he watched for Nico, but the longer it took the more nervous he got.

Hazel looked up the stairs, trying to see if she could spot him just around the corner, but as everyone turned to face the stairs, there was no sight of him.

But at the top of the stairs, Nico's chest hurt like crazy, his stomach tied in knots as he willed his legs to move. He shouldn't be this nervous, but he was, and it took every thing in him to take the first step. But when he did, everyone watched as he came down.

When Will spotted him, he didn't care about anyone or anything else in the world, all he saw was Nico. His hair was slicked back on one side, the rest falling over his face, framing it. His suit was an obsidian, his tie a fiery red, matching Will's. As Will watched him descend, he wondered how he got so lucky as to be able to take such a beautiful person.

"He really looks amazing," Thalia spoke aloud, even she was speechless. It was amazing what a little time and effort managed to do.

When Nico reached the bottom, Will met him there, holding his hand out to escort him. As a blush crept onto his face, Nico took Will's hand, smiling nervously as they followed everyone into the room, gently music playing.

Will lead Nico into the main hall as the group flooded in. Gently music played as they walked forward, towards the groups of people that surrounded the dance floor. No one was on it, only circling around, leaving the clearing empty.

"Why is no one dancing? Even at public school the horny kids would at least be grinding up on one another, what's up with this?" Nico asked, leaning in to whisper to Hazel who was walked beside him.

"Oh, no one wants to be the first one to dance, like, everyone will, but no one wants to be the _first,"_ Hazel replied, keeping her voice low.

"Why?"

"Well, it's sort of an unspoken rule that the first pair to dance has to do it all by themselves in front of everyone. It's a really romantic gesture, but no one wants to be the first. I've seen it go until the dance is half over before some one stepped up. I heard once that there was a dance that no one started," Hazel explained.

"Well, if no one steps up, I'm totally soloing it," Leo budded in, wiggling his eyebrows as he kept his eyes dead set on the empty dance floor. Hazel only rolled her eyes as she pushed him back and straightened back up.

Nico leaned back and looked up at Will who smiled down at him in return. As Nico stared straight ahead, he felt Will slip his hand down, sliding his hand into Nico's. Nico's entire face became red hot as his heart pounded in his chest, Will following much the same path.

Hand in hand, Will lead him to the cluster of people that were gathered around the center. The orchestra was warming up, getting ready for someone to actually step out and start the night off. As they waited, no one did, time ticking away as they all stood around awkwardly, some people trying to push their friends into the middle as a joke.

It wasn't much fun, but it was still better than being the first ones out, but Will thought other wise. Will kept his sight forward as he squeezed through the crowd, making his way to the front.

"Will, what are you doing?" Nico asked, looking confused as Will continued to lead the forward.

"we're going to dance."

"Will, I can't dance!" Nico pleased, voice low as all eyes were on him and Will as they stood in the middle. He wanted to dace, but he couldn't, so dancing in front of the entire school with all eyes on him was more than he could handle. He wanted to run, to hide, but he couldn't.

"Just follow my lead and you'll be fine," Will reassured him, smiling as he set their hands up properly, Will leading as the conductor got ready to start, not used to it being started that early.

As everyone watched Nico, their eyes judging, he found it hard to not focus on it. Will was an amazing dancer, but Nico kept stepping on his feet, making everything ten times worse. But when it happened, Will would only smile, continuing to lead him.

"I'm sorry," Nico mumbled as he stepped on Will's toes, apologizing every time it occurred.

"It's okay, you don't need to apologize."

But as they continued to dance, the song reaching its climax, Nico found that he didn't care for who ever was watching. As Will spun him, Nico could feel his nerves leaving him, letting him relax into the blond's touch.

Will lifted him up with ease, setting him down almost as easily as he had picked him up. It was amazing how everything went. When the song started to slow down, Nico was upset. He didn't want to share the floor with anyone, he wanted to dance with Will, with no one else there to get in their way. But it had to come to an end.

Their movements slowed down, but they watched each other's movements, clinging to each other like their life depended on it. Just as the song ended, Will lifted Nico up, spinning him as he came down. The final notes of the song played as everyone watched the two of them, slowly coming together, reaching a complete stop before Will brought his hands up to cup Nico's cheeks, bringing his lips to meet with Nico's.

At first Nico was surprised, but he melted into it, wrapping his arm around his neck as he leaned into it, not caring that the entire student body was watching them. To them, they were the only ones in the world.

And they kissed, everyone erupted into cheers, Hazel and Kayla especially loud, screaming how they knew this was going to happen.

Nico might have been to hell and back, but he would have done it all again if it meant he was going to get his happy ending all over again.

And even as people split onto the floor, the music starting up again, Will nor Nico cared, the two of them holding one another closely. When they broke apart, they leaned on one another for support, foreheads touching as they laughed, enjoying one other.

Even as people danced around them, Nico knew that they were the only two that mattered.

For Nico, his entire life was defined by a "before" and "after", and no matter had happened, he would never choose to go back to his life in the "before". He was far too happy, and nothing could ever happen to change that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the final chapter is out!
> 
> Not gonna lie, I stopped thoroughly proofreading this about two paragraphs in. Its late, i'm tried.
> 
> I would have been on time, but every time i right one of these part of it gets deleted for some reason
> 
> But wow, I finished another story! I know it wasn't perfect, but I do want to go ovr it some time in the future and add more things in, maybe change the name cuz a lot of the last minute details were rushed, like i had to cut an entire scene with Chiron and Will out which would have answered more questions, but again, that's going to be added. 
> 
> Let me know your questions, if you have any, and i will make sure to get back to you. I might to an epilogue down the road for this, so that might happen, but yeah, its late and i don't have much to say other than MERRY CHRISTMAS!
> 
> Thank you for sticking around this sugar fueled story, i hope you enjoyed the ride just as much as i did, please let me know your thoughts!!
> 
> Kitty out!

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so some of you know that Side Friend, another story of mine, was a Christmas story, and this is exactly like that, well, not exactly. So this is how this works: I will post one chapter a day until Christmas, that's where the final chapter is posted. So, I hope you enjoy your Christmas present.  
> Let me know your thoughts!!  
> Kitty out


End file.
